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FAMOUS

FORRESIJ A(3<ERMAN,

The Behind-the-Screams
Story of Horrorwood’s
First Filmonster Magazine
Bloch. . .Chaneys. . .Elvira. . .
Karloff. . .King. . . Lorre...
Lugosi. . .Reed. . .Savini. . .
Tor. . . More!

COLLECTOR’S EDITION

SEE —

A SPECIAL ALUMNI
FEARBOOK SECTION

SEE-

inside THE ACKERMANSION

GRAVEYARD EXAMINER II

YOU AXED FOR IT AGAIN!

Introduction by

VINCENT PRICE

FORREST J ACKERMAN

OF FILMLAND

Introduction by
VINCENT PRICE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The editor wishes to thank the following in-
dividuals, studios, producers, photographers, col-
lectors, friends, previous publisher, et al, for the
use of applicable text and photos in this volume.
The majority of “stillustrations” are from the Imagi-
Movie Archives of the author, founded in the year
1930. Material published between 1958 and 1968,
copyrighted by Central Publications Inc. and Warren
Publishing Co., appeared on a First Publication
Rights basis and rights were reverted after publica-
tion or repurchased by original publisher for one
time reprint in annual reprise editions or for pocket-
book anthologies created by the editor.

James R. Aiello, AIP, Allied Artists, Bill Appleton,
Diana Battistini, Howard Berger, Bobbie Bresee,
Frank Bresee, Debra A. Ciarelli, Ron Cobb, Colum-
bia Pictures, Gr£^ Daniels, Walt Daugherty, Don R)st
Studios, Tim Ferrante, Bill George, Judith Greer,
Hammer Films, J. Barry Heron, Cortlandt HuU, Carl
Laemmle Sr. , I^ns 14, Jas. Manzella, MGM Studios,
Diana S. Michelucci, Marion Moore, Morris
Costume, Bill Nelson, Albert Nuetzell, Paramount
Pictures, Terri Pinckard, Vic Prezio, Vincent Price,
Erica Rabau, RKO Pictures, Trina Robbins, John
Russo, Tom Savini, Andy Schifino, Sam Sherman,
John Spaulding, Universal Studios, Warner Bros.
Studios, Jas. Warren, Maurice Whitman, Dolores
Chop-Wit, Belle Z. Wyman

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND
cover reproductions ©Warren Publishing Co.

Concept and Design: Robert V. Michelucci
Associate Design: John Spaulding
Published by: IMAGINE, INC.

Library of Congress
Catalog Card Number: 85-082040
ISBN: 0-911137-05-X
First Printing: July 1986

$10.95/film

Cover design and direction: Robert Michelucci
Cover photographed by: Bill Appleton
Makeup by: Howard Berger, Tom Savini
Models: Bobbie Bresee, Forrest Ackerman

All rights reserved. No part of this book be reproduced or utilized in any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
storage and retrieval wstem, without permission in writing from the author and
Inquiries should be addressed to Imagine, Inc., P.O. Box 9674, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Printed in the United States of America
Published by Imagine, Inc.

First Edition

form or any
information
publisher.
15226.

“I BID YOU WELCOME!” at 2495 Glendower Ave., Hollyweird, Karloffornia.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE by Sam Sherman 5

INTRODUCTION by Vincent Price 7

THE BIRTH OF A NOTION 9

FRANKENSTEIN FROM SR\CE (Mfeaver Wright &

Budd Bankson) 24

YOU AXED FOR IT ” [33

THE MONSTER WHO MADE A MAN

(Karloff) 40

INSIDE THE ACKERMANSION . . . ’.55

PUBLIC VAMPIRE NO. 1 (Lugosi) 75

CAPTAIN COMPANY REMEMBERED 81

GRAVEYARD EXAMINER 92

RARE TREAT (Savini, Berger, Bresee) 132

DR. ACKULA’S LUMINOUS ALUMNI 142

A GHOULLERY OF GOTHIC GREATS
(From Atwill on) 148

DEDICATION

I DEDICATE this volume to BOB MICHELUCCI
for doing me the favor of offering to publish this time
travel trip thru a quarter century of my past, auto-
biographically reliving my editorship of FAMOUS
MONSTERS (OF FILMLAND). . .

. . .to the spirits of KARLOFF, LUGOSI, LANG
& LON CHANEY SR., my greatest inspirators in the
realm of imagi-movies . . .

... to the evergreen memories of my beloved mater-
nal grandparents, BELLE & GEORGE WYMAN, last
of the big time angels, who fostered my interest in
fantasy from the age of 5-1/2 . . .

. . .to HUGO GERNSBACK & FRANK R. PAUL,
my spiritual fathers, who set me on the path that has
culminated in a myriad works and this book today . . .

. . .to WENDAYNE ACKERMAN, my life’s com-
panion, sharer of sunshine & secret sorrows . . .

. . .and, yes, even to JIM WARREN, for the good
times & the good years, which, on balance, I guess
outweighed the abysmal ending.

AND TO EVERY FAN who ever wrote me a nice
letter or made me a pleasant phone call or called on
me and left enthusiastic or gave me an unexpected gift
or contributed cash for the upkeep of my Museum or
helped support me by buying something because of
my byline . . .

PREFACE

Publisher’s Perogative

OUT OF HUNDREDS of letters written over more
than a quarter centuiy expressing opinions about Forry
Ackerman, we have selected this current one by a
friend who has known him professionally for nearly
30 years. Himself an editor, author, filmaker in the
fantasy field, Sam Sherman shares with us his thoughts
about “Mr. Science Fiction,” “Mr. Sci-Fi,” “Mr.
Filmonster,” “The Boy Who Was Bom on Mars,”
the Peter Pan of the Imagi-nation who will celebrate
his 70th birthday in November this year.

We join in the salute to “the smiling moonbeam

BOB MICHELUCCI

If there had never been a Forty Ackerman, Curt
Siodmak or Ray Bradbury would have had to in-
vent him.

Forry is a one of a kind ... an original. He is the
true father of Sci-Fi and the first person who has
made fantasy and horror respectable.

There would never have been a “Star Wars” (and
clones), a “Close Encounters” or even a “Dracula
vs. Frankenstein” without Forry.

Most of us in the Horror-Fantasy field would now
be accountants, lawyers or worse. Let’s face
it . . . how many parents approved of a budding
teenager’s interest in Horror back three decades or
more ago? Forry made aU that possible.

I met Forty after writing a letter to Jim Warren,
influenced by the publication of the first issue of
Forty’s FAMOUS MONSTERS. I quickly rose
from anonymous reader to supplier of historical
materials and stills for old FM. I became a con-
tributor to Forty’s SPACEMEN and we worked
together on 2, I edited, 'WILDEST "WESTERNS
and SCREEN THRILLS ILLUSTRATED.

Coming to Forty’s original “Ackermansion” (on
Sherboume Drive) for the first time was a great
treat. Forry welcomed me with my name in fights
on his illuminated sign and I entered through the
creaking door into a very special ‘ ‘Inner Sanctum, ’ ’
which Forty has always been wifiing to share with
his guests. There it was, a Sci-Fi and Horror buffs
dream come true. AU the monsters — some small,
some full sire, the wardrobe. . .the old posters, the
books, the stills and lots more. A weird wonder-
land. . .thrills beyond belief and ruled over by the
'Vincent Price of the Priceless, the ageless kid who

leads all of us aging juveniles. . .and he makes it
all seem as important as the most classic of sub-
jects which we learned about in our college fit
classes.

Forty is a warm, helpful friend to aU. He has
come to my rescue many times. Rescue. ..7 1
remember when he got Ken Strickfaden to supply
his high voltage machines for our film “DRACULA
VS. FRANKENSTEIN.” Ken was only too will-
ing to help. . .after only hying to electrocute me
with one of the machines as a gag(?).

Forty further decided that the man playing Count
Dracula needed a more exotic name than Roger
Engel. . .so he renamed him Zandor Vorkov. . .a
bit of pure Poe-etry.

A highlight of any trip I take with my wife and
daughter to California is getting together with Forty
and his wonderful wife Wendayne. I only wish we
aU had more time to spend together.

Forry is excitement and enthusiasm personified.
He enjoys everything he does and everyone he
meets. His feelings have rubbed off on so many of
us . . .1 guess it’s so, or many of us would have left
this industry at one time or another.

Keeping all this in mind. . .1 completely support
anything that keeps Forty’s contribution clearly in
sight. An autobiographical volume would be sen-
sational . . . though I don’t know when he will find
the time to do it.

Vive Forty!

Cordially,

Homage
4E Ackerman

I’ve done my share of horror films ; some were
meant to be, some weren’t. Some actors so con-
nected in the public’s mind, mind the association.
I do and I don’t. All of us have done other things,
many of which we’re proud of than the hor-
rors, but what the public remembers demands a
certain amount of gratitude from all of us. The
public can forget so easily.

Now there are people whose role in life is to
perpetuate the public’s memory in certain ways,
specific areas of every field of endeavor. Some
do it with a heavy hand and some with a touch
of genius. Some even combine genius with humor
and they are the very special few. To name the
one special, unique, all by himself, we must come
up with the name of Forry Ackerman. He has a
gentle wit, full of fun and funniness. He loves a
quip and is not above treating us to some stunning
punning. He wrote me that, “Twenty-seven years
ago I brought forth upon this continent a gruesome
magazine conceived in jeopardy and dead-icated
to the proposition (13) that all monsters are
cremated evil . ” Now you see what I mean . . . and
not even the slightest apology to Lincoln.

Quite seriously Fony has indeed punned, faked,
and consciously smiled his way into millions of
young hearts. To appear on a cover of his
magazine is to become immortal in a rather
ghoulish way. The recipient of the cover honor
can be sure of thousands of imitations. He or she
takes a place in the make up of many Halloweens.
They become collector’s items and are framed,
hung, adored and almost worshipped throughout
Monsterland. Landis, Lucas, King, Spielberg all

owe him some of their devoted followers. Single-
handedly he has kept alive many a lessening legend,
putting them under his list of ghost writers at the
heading of his always imaginative stationery. Tod
Browning, Geoi^e Zucco, Jack Pierce as well as
the obvious greats Karloff, Lorre, etc.

On a personal note he is a great and loyal friend
and career supporter. When you’re with Forry or
4E and his enchanting wife Wendayne at a movie
opening or film festival as I was two years ago
in Madrid, or at some especially enchanted
Hollywood affair, you know you’re in the com-
pany of royalty. In his kingdom of the bizarre,
weird and wonderful he is supreme ruler, keeper
of the keys to monster immortality. He pictures
himself crowned with Jack Pierce’s famous top
part of Frankenstein’s monster head.

Forry has made monsters fun, vampires good
company. His address in Hollyweird Karloffornia
has become a mecca for young monster lovers and
serious students of one of the oldest cinema genres.
He is a collector extraordinaire as he truly col-
lects extraordinary things and has made the grand
gesture of offering it to the City of Los Angeles
which, with its typical lack of concern for an in-
dustry that has made it famous, still doesn’t have
a place to house it.

Eventually he and his collection will become
monuments to a (but for him) much neglected
cinema art form. We all owe him a great debt for
keeping alive his favorite genre of movies by
preserving its mementos. We should thank him
for his fun, devotion, and generous giving of it
to his avid public. His fans are legion.

—Vincent Price

Pick your favorite picture, i’il sign it.

i.|. .Sit]

AMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND-
how did it begin? If there is one perennial
question I am asked about the periodical that
created a genre and spawned a hkf a hundred
spinoffs around the world, that is it.

Well, shortly before Labor Day 1957 a chartered
planeload of sci-fi folks and just plain folks flew
across the Big Pond to London for the World
Science Fiction Convention. I was aboard. After
the con we had a couple of free weeks before retur-
ning to the States and I spent them as a Guest of
Honor at a German sf convention and browsing
about in Paris. In the City of Light there came to
light a filmagazine called Cinema which ordinari-
ly was devoted to all sorts of movies but this one
particular issue was all out on imagi-movies. Heruy
Hull as the WereWolf of London was featured on
the cover and the classic crowd of Dracula,
Frankenstein, King Kong, Im-ho-tep, Dr. Jekyll &
Mr. Hyde, etc., were featured inside the cover.

I bought a couple copies for my collection.

At this time my principal means of livelihood was
as a literary agent specializing in fantasy and
representing about 150 writers of science fiction.
I had done especially well with a newcomer in the
men’s magazine field, After Hours, selling short
stories by such clients of the time as Arthur Rirges
and perhaps Charles Beaumont, and I had struck
up a racy correspondence with its raunchy editor,
Jim Warren. Warren had a theme for each issue—
The Girls of Paris, The Girls of Vienna, etc. — so

I suggested. How about The Girls of Other Worlds,
or the Future, or something like that? A sci-fi
oriented issue. He liked the idea and I sold him
“Confessions of a Science Fiction Addict” by
myself, a weird tale by Arthur Pbiges (“I Meet My
Love Again”), “The Great Male Robbery” by
myself writing as Weaver Wright (reprinted as “A
Nervous Girl of 1970” in Mexico, anthologized in
Italy as “The Crush Hour” and somewhere/some-
time I believe it has been published as “You Can’t
Be Too Carful” as it is an auto-oriented bit of
futuristic fluff) and the article that in retrospect set
the style for FMOF, “Screamoscope is Here!”

On my return stopover in New York I was anx-
ious to meet this fiin guy Warren and he was equally
enthusiastic to make the Ack-quaintance of this pun
guy Ackerman.

I awaited his arrival in my little cubicle (a broom
closet that doubled for a room in those days) in the
old Chesterfield hotel. Came a knock at the door.
I opened it.

Now the scenario according to Warren was sup-
posed to be that his girlfriend Phyllis Farkas would
rush past me, rip open her blouse, throw herself
on my bed and start screaming “Rape!” Warren
would be hiding around a comer. Before I could
gather my wits he would come bounding into the
room and confront Ack the Rifper. Instead, I mined
everything by intuiting who ^e was and saying,
“You must be Jim Warren’s girlfriend!”, at which
point Jim jumped into sight.

GENESIS OF THE
BOOK OF REVELATIONS

While consuming blueberry pancakes at a cof-
fee shop nearby I showed Warren the copy of the
French filmagazine Gnerm 57. At that point in his
publishing career his periodical After Hours had
gone k^ut due, according to him, to some rasceity
on the part of a partner. Jim had just enough cash
and credit left for a “oneshot’— a single magazine
about Marilyn Monroe or Brigitte Bardot or Elvis
or anyone or anything that was currently hot. The
French magazine gave him an inspiration: he would
write to the publisher, borrow the photos, get the
text translated and have himself an instant oneshot.
But it didn’t work for two reasons: 1, he found the
stills did not come from a single source and were
now dispersed to their owners all over France; and
2, the text was too diy, too pedestrian, too pedantic.

At this point Warren knew me only as an agent
and science fiction fan. I had no one to toot my
hom so I had to speak up for myself. I told him
I could easily duplicate any photo in the magazine
from my own collection of (at that time) 35,000
stills, and that I had seen all the fantastic films back
to 1922 and had been writing about them ever since
1932. Warren didn’t know whether I was a
Holly woodenhead full of hot air or if I was for real
but he took a chance and flew out to Tinsel Town
to check me out. (Actually, I learned years later,
he was so broke that he took a Greyhound bus to
Las Vegas, then, to impress me, the big New York
publisher “flew in” from the Big Apple.)

Of course Warren discovered I was everything
I claimed and he returned to New York to shop
around the idea of a oneshot called Wnderama with
the magazine distributors of the day, of which there
were, as I recall, 13. 1 haven’t a superstitious bone
in my body but in this case the number did turn
out to be unlucky: all baker’s dozen of potential
distributors turned down Wonderama. (I once saw
the presentation job Jim did on it and thought it was
real neat. It was in the form of a large oblong book

with dramatic lettering and design, and dynamite
stills from fantastic films, and every few pages
Frankenstein or King Kong or a vampire bat or
something similar would spring up a la a pop-up
book. Warren was always going to give me this book
for my collection but he never did.)

Well, the project would have died aborning
because there would have been no point in print-
ing 100,000 copies of a magazine that was going
nowhere but onto warehouse shelves, when UFE
magazine unwittingly came to our rescue with a
feature (8 pages as I recall) on the hot new film
phenomenon of the teenage horror film. I W\S A
TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, I WAS A
TEENAGE WEREWOLF, I WAS A TEENAGE
TARANTULA. . . One distributor remembered this
crazie who’d been around a few weeks previously
trying to peddle this mad idea of a magazine made
up of monsters and madmen in makeup and he
called him back and said, “OK, stick ‘monsters’
on the cover and we’re in business.”

Down the tube went my dream of ^bnderama,
a cinematic encyclopedia with a definitive pose of
Dracula, a classic picture of King Kong, a super
stiU from THINGS TO COME, a fabulous photo
of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll beside himself as Mr.
Hyde, together with casts and credits, synopses,
critics’ opinions, my own, etc. Everything Y)u
Always Wanted to l6iow About Imagi-Movies up
to 1958, aU under one cover, all stillustrated. I
thought it would stand as a landmark with fantasy
film fans but a curio quickly forgotten by the public;
maybe in another 25 years they’d let me bring it
up to date.

Having acquired a distributor, Warren phoned
me. “I know you’re quite serious about your films ”
he said, “so I’m going to tell you something and
then I’m going to hold the phone a yard away from
my ear because I’m sure I’ll hear you scream all
the way to New York. You, Forrest J-no-period
Ackerman, are about to become the editor of— are
you ready for this?— a magazine called FAMOUS
MONSTERS OF FILMLAND!"

“Oh, no — !” I groaned. “Do I have to put my
name on it!”

After reconstructing memories about the birth
of FMOF by mentally traveling pastward to the
winter of 1957, 1 serendipitously ran across this ac-
count published only 6 years after the fact and feel
it would be interesting to include it for comparitive
purposes, to see how my memories match up to-
day with those nearly a quarter of a century ago.
This account originally appeared in the 4th issue,
Feb. ’63, of Rintasy Journal, a mimeographed
publication presented by Jim Hollander & Bob
Greenberg. I don’t know what became of Hollander
but Greenberg is in the movie industry and most
recently was associated with RE-ANIMATOR. I
suspect the following was based on a verbal inter-
view. I note only one inaccuracy, something that
surprises me since I certainly knew better at the
time: I can’t account for the quotation that my
(maternal) grandmother had been buying me stills
from THE LOST WORLD, FRANKENSTEIN
and DRACULA ever since I was 9. She would have
had to have had a time machine to have bought me
stills from the latter two films when I was 9, con-
sidering I was 9 in 1926 and they weren’t produc-
ed till 1931. The fact is, the first stills I ever got
from an imagi-movie were bought by her (Belle
Wyman) in 1930 from the trip-to-Mars
futuristicomedy JUST IMAGINE.

In 1957 1 had joined a group, for the firstime in
science fiction history, of 55 authors, artists, fans
and editors, who had chartered a Dutch plane and
flew to London, where the W?rld Science Fiction Con-
vention was being held, outside the confines of the
United States. As long as I had come as far as Lon-
don, I continued after the Convention and went to
Europe, and while I was in Paris, I found a movie
magazine which was ordinarily devoted to films of
all natures but that particular issue was all about
science fiction and fantasy. It had about a hundred
photographs from KING KONG, FRANKENSTEIN,

THE MUMMY, and so on, so I bought half a dozen
copies of that, primarily for myself and my friends,
and when I was in New York (at that time I was
literary agent for about a hundred authors) I met up
with a young publisher, James Warren, to whom I
had sold a number of manuscripts as literary agent.
I just happened to show him this movie magazine.
He was looking for something to do at that moment
and it didn't really matter whether it was about
Marilyn Monroe or Brigitte Bardot or Elvis Presley
or the twist. He simply had $30,000 worth of cash
and credit to invest in a magazine. He wanted to
produce what is known as a one-shot. So, he got a
look at this French filmagazine and said, “Aha,
50,000,000 Frenchmen can’t be wrong. Let’s turn the
French into English, use all of these pictures, and
have ourselves a magazine. ” When he investigated
that idea a little further, he found that the magazine
was on an entirely too academic, philosophic and
literary a level. He didn’t think that it would appeal
to the American public. It would have been too much
oreinted to the French or European mind, and he
was about to abandon the plan, not knowing that
life had singularly prepared me to play the role of
editor of such a magazine; that ever since I was 9
years old, my dearly beloved grandmother had been
busily buying me stills from the early LOST WORLD,
FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA, and so on. So, when
I got back to Los Angeles, we had a bit more cor-
respondence on it, and he, in turn, took the idea
around town in New York, although he was turned
down originally, because no one believed that anyone
would buy a magazine about science fiction movies
any more than they would want to buy one about
butterflies or fieckles. LIFE MAGAZINE came to
our rescue at that time by pointing out what a big
hit were the new “teenage” Frankensteins, were-
wolves, and whatnots, and the distributor, remember-
ing Jim Warren, called him back, and said, “How
about making a monster magazine?” He phoned me,
and I, rather than being flattered, was somewhat
flattened, because I wasn’t quite that enthusiastic
about monsters. Nevertheless, I went along with the
idea and he flew out, and one week after he had
arrived in Los Angeles, I put him back on the plane,
with about a hundred pictures I had selected, and
the copy for what at the time we thought would be
the one and only issue. It turned out to be so popular
that at the end of four days cf sale in New York,
despite a big snowstorm, we received 50 letters a
day: 200 letters in our Philadelphia office. Finally,
when the magazine had gone on sale all over the
United States, about 3000 letters came in, and so
the second issue was prepared, and the third, and
the fourth and the fifth, and just before flying to
Chicago for the convention, I finished the 20th issue,
and the 6th issue of SPACEMEN, and, as far as Tm
concerned, it’ll go on till my dying day, and maybe
a few issues thereafter (I usually am a little bit ahead
of the game, and have half of another issue or so
written).

LOOKING toward the east wall of the original
Ackermansion. Seen atop the piano are portrait
of Hugo Gernsback, Father of Science Fiction,
and pulchrinude of Trina photographed by FJA.
Peeking thru the fringe is Dorian Gray, the
terrorvision version by Dick Smith. Note
"Weicome Martians’’ neon sign.

THE MONSTROUS
MARATHON

I had no sooner put down the phone than War-
ren appeared at my door. (In those days the original
Ackermansion occupied the grounds at 915 S. Sher-
boume Dr., Los Angeles 90035, a two-storey
Spanish-style home on the periphery of Beverly
Hills with 13 (!) rooms and a triplex garage for the
overflow of the collection.)

We went wild.

I cleared off the “dying room” table, put my por-
table typewriter on it and blazed away 20 hours a
day. (In the mid-30s I qualified as a Civil Service
Senior Typist and my skiUs have only improved with
age.) 1 would turn out copy till 3 or 4 in the morn-
ing, then we would drive over 3 blocks to Ships
24-hour restaurant* for orange juice, hotcakes,
bacon and coffee, after which I left Jim off at a
nearby motel, went home to bed and 4 hours later
picked him up again and we were off and running.
Well, sitting. Warren’s principal contribution was
sitting opposite me holding an imaginary sign in
the air which read “I am IVA Years Old and I Am
Your Reader. Forty Ackerman, Make Me Laff!”

Now, mind you, I had not started out with the
slightest intention of making anyone laugh. Of fool-

*Seen in John Landis’s film INTO THE NIGHT

THEMASTERof the Ackermansion poses with foreground head of Frankenstein, life mask of
him (FJA) made by Ray Harryhausen in 1941 when FJA was 24, and head (gift of ib J. Melchior)
from SPACE MONSTER.

The Ackerwoman & the Ackermonster on BBC/TV in the original Ackermansion.

Guests (Don Reed, front) in livingroom of
the “Scareborn” address.

ing around with phantoms or messing about with
monsters. But Warren set the policy from the start,
or perhaps it could even be said to have originated
wiA the distributor. However, since in some circles
I have the reputation of being the poor man’s Isaac
Asimov or “the destitute man’s Robert Bloch”, and

1 exercise my funi^bone regularly and am not above
cracking a pun (“the odor of a decaying mind”)
on rare occasions, it was not too difficult for me
to conform. I was rewarded the week after the se-
cond issue appeared by being in a swimming pool
full of strangers and one woman said to the other,
‘'Yon wouldn’t believe the magazine my kid brought
home the other day! It was all full of crazy faces
and there was one picture of a mummy falling into
a swimming pool and the caption read, ‘He became
an instant mud pie.’ ” And the whole pool had
hysterics. And I thought to myself, “Gee, people
are laughing at something I wrote a few weeks ago!”
The egoboo was some sort of compensation for the
fact that I only got $200 to start the job and $200
on completion plus 100 complimentary copies of
the magazine. (It didn’t take me too long to give
them all away; if he kept them, Boris Karloff should
have had a complete set at the time of his demise,

2 February 1969. I never dreamed a copy of that
35-cent magazine would 25 years later seU to a col-
lector for $500 at a specialty shop in Eagle Rock,
California. I’ve been known to pay as much as $175

IN A PORTION of the front room of Ackermansion #1 we see an interior illustration from Weird
Tales obviously inspired by Claude Rains as the Invisible Man; a cover of FMOF of Henry Hull as
the WereWolf of London; a head of an android from THE TIME TRAVELERS; a head of the
Karloffrankenstein Monster; Harryhausen’s life mask of me at 24; an airbrush of Ultima Futura
Automaton by Albert Nuetzell; and, in the forefront, a miniature of the Alarm Gong from
METROPOLIS with a foto of Harryhausen & myself on the side of it. Below, a one time bedroom
(!) in the original Ackermansion!

OPERATION HEAD START. FJA installs
Frankenstein head in spot where it will
startle visitors to the Ackermansion.

ACKERFAN #1 of the time, Ricky
Schwartz, poses with the Ackermonster in
the original Ackermansion. Behind them,
believe it or not, is the door to the dying,
er, living room, covered with albums of
filmusic from imagi-movies.

a copy myself, for eventual resale [or gift], and was
staggered in 1983, I believe it was, to be told of
a full page ad in a professional filmonster-
zine offering a complete set of FMOF
for. . .$10,000!)

Perhaps 15 years ago, or maybe it was even longer,
a representative of Wyoming University came to me
and said his college was interested in getting into
the science fiction collecting act but th^ didn’t have
the funds for an all-inclusive collection and
wondered if I could suggest some branch in which
they could specialize and hope to acquire a respec-
table selection in a decade or so. TOen I learned
they were already cinema-oriented I recommend-
ed stills, pressbooks, posters, etc. from imagi-
movies. The thought crossed my mind that I might
offer them as a gift a set of FMOF complete to that
time but I dismissed the thought because I felt my
periodical would probably be considered too trashy,
too pulpy, adolescent, beneath the dignity of
academic standards, and they might only politely
accept and then throw the lot away. Before I could
open my mouth I made $750 by keeping it shut
because the first thing the rep asked was, “Now
would it be possible to get a set of your magazine?
Are we talking $500? $1000?” I was happy to of-
fer a compromise of $750.

En passant, I hope the majority of you readers
don’t object to my personal method of writing, which
I call the Kitchen Sink School. My mind hops around
like a glasshopper*^ on a hot tin roof and Fm liable
to skip forward or backward in this narration at a
moment’s notice. / hope it’s not too confusing but
it’s this way or no way — I have no time to organize,
rewrite. What you’re getting is first draft; I apologize
if at times it’s too draughty.

**An insect on the planet Silikonia

PORTION of wall of dining (dying?) room
of Ackermansion #1.

LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH

What Jim Warren didn’t know at the time and
only learned years later, at which time he expres-
sed himself as “astounded” and declared I was “a
genius” (well, I don’t know about that);— what he
didn’t know at the time I was being funny as hell
creating FMOF was that my wife and her son by
a previous marriage were giving me hell in my own
home. I was just about 6 weeks away from being
served divorce proceedings papers. I had planned
to institute the proceedings myself but it was to her
advantage to strike first so on New Years Day 1958
I was served with a surprise present. That was in
the bad old days where there had to be a villain
instead of the no-fault divorces of today where both
parties simply admit to mutual incompatibility, so
I was branded the heavy, guilty of mental cruelty,
and as compensation for her “suffering” her lawyer*
suggested she taite a buzzsaw and go down the center
of the house, taking half my collection. Either that
or I should pay her half its value, a small fortune.
The matter of alimony was also broached and at
that I balked teetotally. It was suggested that if I
refused to pay, each year when the world science
fiction convention rolled around (the annual
highli^t of my life) I could cool my keester that
week in jail.

Under these circumstances I (de)composed the
pioneering issues of FMOF. Don’t you think I
deserved the iSjwgressional Medal of Horror?

*I could still kill him tod^

FORRY’S FOLLY

FMOF ^1 was released during the dead of winter
in February ,1958. It was not circulated
simultaneously all over the country but trial-tested
only in Philadelphia and New York. In New York
snow was piled up feet high around the magazine
stands and publisher Warren was fearful no one
would be going out in the cold to buy copies of Life,
Playboy, Time or any of the famous established
periodicals, let alone our curiosity. He claimed he
traveled as far as 200 miles out of New York just
to bribe skeptical shop owners to cut the umbilical
cord surrounding that crazy monster magazine and
give it a chance for life in their magazine racks.

At the end of the first 4 days of sale I got an ex-
cited phone call from Jim Warren.

Fan letters had been arriving at the rate of 50
a day.

He already had 200 letters all jumping for joy
and shouting for more.

If the reaction kept up like this when it was
distributed in Chicago, Miami, Detroit, LA, et al,
we had a winner.

The press run of 125,000 copies sold out.

He went back to press and had 75,000 more copies
printed.

“Don’t you think we ought to strike while the iron
is hot,” JW phoned me, “and bring out another
issue? Do you have enough material?”

“James Warren,” I responded, “you don’t know
me very well. I don’t believe in reincarnation but
in case I’m surprised and keep coming back, I could
go on till the year 5000 without repeating myself.”

So I started work on the second issue. For the
cover he proposed a Halloween skull (no. I’m get-
ting ahead of myself— that was for the third issue),
the kind you buy at any trick/game/novelty shop.
“Too trite,” I said, and talked him out of it. (For
once; the usual response thru the years was, “You
may be right but I’m boss.” How I loved that
refrain.)

In the fang mail in #2 this (in)famous letter
appeared:

This magazine is being discussed
hereabouts as “Ackerman’s Lblly.”

The signature was an author well-known today:
Dick Lupoff. The publisher’s response was:

Editor Ackerman personally re-
ceived over 700 letters from mon-
ster-lovers all over the world, prais-
ing him for his great piece of work
on our first issue. He receivkl only
one letter (above) of the sour-
grapes variety, from a reader who
is obviously familiar with Acker-
man’s reputation as America’s
Number One Science Fiction Fan,
and who obviously disapproves of
Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Oh, well, as Frankenstein said to
the skeleton, “To each his bone.”

Don’t tell them about
“Forry’s Folly”!

Dick Lupoff offended me more deeply than that
some years later, although I have to admit that I
was in the wrong, if entirely innocently so. It was
at a world sci-fi convention somewhere in the East
and after a speaker had finished and the auditorium
was clearing out, a group of fans clustered around
me for autographs, questions, etc. I inched toward
the back of the room and finally was in the
antechamber at the rear of the auditorium. I was
busily engaged in conversing with fans when Lupoff
suddenly burst upon the scene screaming at me
something like, “God damn it, Ackerman, will you
get the hell out of here with those damned monster
fans of yours, can’t you see there’s a panel trying
to make itself heard?” I was very embarrassed
because I now saw it was true that a new panel had
started without my being aware of it, so I hurried-
ly herded the fans away from the region. I couldn’t
deny to myself that I had been regarded as a
nuisance by the speakers, who had probably
delegated Lupoff to shush me up, but I feel to this
day that he could have handled it in a more genteel
fashion: “Forry— a new session has started. Could
you and your fans just move a little farther away,
out into the hall?” That’s all it would have taken.

Despite the foregoing, I do not hold a grudge
against Lupoff on either score. I do on a third,
where he rewrote history concerning me and the
First Hugo and stubbornly refused to correct a
misguided viewpoint while there was still time. But
that has nothing to do with this book. My
“monstrous” revenge on offenses 1 & 2 came to
me very satisfyingly and with no effort on my part
whai Im son became of an age to appreciate FMOF
and pleaded with his dad to give him enough money
to invite the editor to lunch! Ah, sic transit gloria
Forry’s Folly— whatever that means!

COLLECTOR’S ITEM

Jim Warren and his girlfriend posed for the first
cover.

The opening article was “Monstos Are Good For
You”, in which Dr. Acula opined, “A vampire a
day keeps the doctor away” and proceeded, half
in jest, half in earnest, to malte a case for the cathar-
tic value of horror films.

“Doctor, I fed run down.”

The doctor lodied at his patieid
and conld easily understand wl^.
The blood dripping on the floor,
the tire marte across his face,
were symptoms that told the doc-
tor the man had just been hit by
a two ton tmck.

“Pull yourself together, go out
and see a good horror movie,” the
doctor prescribed. “It will make
a new man of you.”

The day may not be so far dis-
tant when vitamins will be re-
placed by vita-monsters (vita-
moans would have been better
but I didn’t think of that till a
later issue), anti-histamines by
haunty-histamines, and the com-
mon aspirin tablet 1^ a chill-pill
called GASPirin.

Then I turned back the clock to the ghastly events
of Greek dramas, the ghosts of Shakespeare (later to
become Shockspeare), quoting Ernst as “the most
popular shock show in the early 1800’s, with the devil
up to his usual deviltry,” citing Edgar Allan Poe, up
to Dr. Ernest Dichter, then President of the Institute
for Motivational Research. The conclusion drawn; the
pubhc re-enactment of private nightmares exercises
a kind of video-therapy on its audience. Exorcism via
entertainment!

MALICE IN
WONDERLAND

“Alice in Monsterland” was the article I was most
attached to in the premiere issue, 14 pages of the pure
quill.

Step with us through the mir-
ror into the waiting world of
thii^ wonderfully w^. Into the
celluloid land of dark develop-
ments, where shadows like
smoke-forms in a realm of
dreams take on imeasy shapes.

fbilow the blood-red sign that
reads: THIS WAY TO THE
MONSTERS. And if you lose
your way, ask the nearest scare-
crow for directions.

%ur destination is Horror
House, r^tt next door to Mystery
Mansion, located at the busy in-
tersection of Scream Street and
Beastman Blvd. The fiendly cop
on the corner? Yes, that^
Frankenstdn.

In that feature I covered the major movies of Lon
Chaney Sr. , showing him as Erik of the Opera, the
ancient Chinese mandarin Mr. Wu, and the ape-man
of A BLIND BARGAIN: Chaney Jr. as Kharis;
Karloff as Im-ho-tep; Fredric March as Mr. Hyde;
Iteter Lorre as the bald-pated madman of MAD
LOVE. I told raj lE/r-year-old readers about imagi-
movies that thrilled me long before they were bom:
DR. X, THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX
MUSEUM, THE CAT PEOPLE, THE MOST
DANGEROUS GAME, THE GOLEM, MARK OF
THE VAMPIRE, silent NOSFERATU, SEVEN
FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN, SIEGFRIED,
Karloffs THE GHOUL, THE ISLAND OF
LOST SOULS, et al. Ifoung fantasy film fans today,
via TV reviv^, video cassettes, back issues of
FAMOUS MONSTERS, my FANTASTIC MOVIE
MEMORIES and IMAGTMOVIES, are au courant
with these once little-known titles.

Clockwise: MR. WU, A BLIND BARGAIN, THE MUMMY, MAD LOVE. Center: Erik!

A generation of fanta^
lovers thank you for
raising us so well.
—Steven Spielbeig

“The Frankenstein Story,” in 12 pages, was “the
colorful biography of father, son, bride, ghost and
all the gang.” Ei^t pages were devoted to “Out of
This World Monsters,” every thing from IT
STALKED THE OCEAN FLOOR (“in its stalking
feet”) to THAT, SON OF IT. “How Hollywood
Creates a Monster” was a 6-page plug for a discovery
of mine, the late Paul Blaisdell (THE SHE-
CREATURE, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD,
etc.). “The Scream Test” consumed 6 pages (in
“scary-o-phonic sound”) acquainting readers with

“the hi-fi life of horrOT hermnes” Wray, Elsa Lan-
chester, Marla English, Gloria Stuart, Miriam
Hopkins, et al. Eight pages told my toddlers (for some
were as young as 6) tto “TV Means Terrifying
pires”: The creatures are cxmwig, hurray, hurray! Tele-
monsters night and day!

Page 66 concluded with a Monsteramic Quiz to
test readers’ H.Q. (Horror Quotient), where they were
told “If you miss more than half the questions, you
had better memorize the contents of this magazine.
If you miss aU the questions, you’ve been missing a
lot of the fun in life!”

Saving the beast till last, I ihen wrote the editorial.
Warren actually wanted it to be written by Stan
Frebeig, a big wit then as he remains today, but as
I recall Frebeig’s agent turned him down. So I did
what I could to psyche nyself into Frebeig’s valence,
with the following result.

CREATURE

welcome

monster

lovers

YOU’RE STUCK!

The stuff this magazine is printed on
which looks so much like ordinary black
printer’s ink, is actually glue.

YOU CANNOT PUT THIS
MAGAZINE DOWN!

Try as you m^ to struggle, it is impossi-
ble: liJffi a zombie, you have no will of your
own. For this unique magazine bears the
fatal fascination of beauty for the beast, of
monsters for maidens fair and monster-
makers unfair.

Did your last date call you a monster? Do your friends think you’re horrible? On
Halloween do they say “t^e off your mask, Frankenstein” when you’re not wearing
a mask? ®

Wives: do you consider your husband a Jekyll & Hyde?

Husbands: do you sometimes wish you were the Invisible Man?

EVERYBODY: do you know all the faces of Frankenstein, about Lon Chaney’s 150
pictures, how many quarts of blood Bela Lugosi drank in DRACULA, and 10,000 other
amazing fects about fantastic monster^

For every tick there’s a tock. If you want to know what makes monsters tick, why
they’re such a click and even why YOU get such a kick out of them, you’ve come to
the right magazine.

That isn’t all. With the purchase of this book you are entitled to be the fiist on your
block to introduce the great new saying that will soon be sweeping the country. When
your beast Mend starts giving you a bad time or a big lip about something you just
said or did, take tip: just shrug your head nonchalantly and stop him cold in his
cracks with, “Well, that’s how the monster mumbles.”

Take it from the man who owns one.

Yours gruely,
THE EDITORS

“BANNED IN TRANSYLVANIA”

So I put togeflier tiie second issue, with banner lines
like For Jean-Agers and Groan-ups! Monsters of the

World, Unite! This Magazine Awarded the Ghoul
Medal Ribbon!

The editorial read:

No, the Monster is not over your left shoulder.

Nor is it anywhere behind you.

It is, in fact, YOU!

Proof? Poof! The Editor will consider you a
Gass A monster if you don’t buy his magazine
after he has slaved over it for months in a hot
dungeon.. .and your best friaids will conader you
a monster if you do buy it. So eitha* w^, just like
a voodoo doU— you’re stuck!

Why n^t it? As friend Frankenstein said
when he first saw KING KONG: ‘It’s b^er than
both of us!”

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND is the
magazine that is wilder, much wilder, because it
is fortified with draculosis, the wonder-working
miracle drug recommended by Dr. Jekyll. After
being around gathering dust for 3000 years, The
IVkiinn^ just renewed his subscription fw another
300. He hopes to hold together that long, but if
he doesn’t well, “That’s the way the Mummy
crumbles.”

Don’t just stand there with your coins in your
claw, pay the man and run screaming in terror.

THE MONSTER’S KEEPER

Our first letter published was;

WOLF FAN

I am sitting in a cold dark
dungeon and writing this to you by
the hght of the full moon. I must
write this quickly as my ears have
already begun to grow pointed and
furry and soon . . . !

I must tell you that rcy joy knows
no bounds! How we monsters have
awaited the “day?” when a
magazine such as this would arrive!
I bayed at the moon for two hours
after I read it!

I particularly enjoyed “Out of
This World Monsters.” Love them
photos! There are enough science
fiction mags on the stands now. Let’s
have more about monsters, Karloff,
Lugosi, Chaney Sr. and Jr.

I am 300 years old, and a male
monster.

■feu must continue with this
project— make MONSTERS OF
FILMLAND a monthly. I would
surely subscribe. . .1. . .agh! . . .
I... would like. . .to write...
more. . .the moon. . .my hands!

. . my face! . . .OWOOOO!!

Pete Lutjens
Kingston, N.Y.

I&« write very maturely jbr a
monster cfa mere 300. By the way,
if you would like to subscribe jbr the
next 200 years, we have a special
reduced rate jbr juveniles under
SOa-Ed.

In the second issue Robert Bloch called FMOF:
“A real Valentine from start to finish.”

“Graduate Student,” North Texas State College,
staled: “The thing I really liked about your first issue
is the atmosphere: certainly not deadly serious, but
then again displaying a respect for the horror pic-
tures as an art form,”

In the readers’ section (then known as Dear
Monster) the publisher masquerading as the editor,
gave his version of how FMOF came to be:

Phyllis Farkas is the cute
hlonde who is responsible for
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF
FILMLAND magazine. It all
happened when publisher
Warren and editor Ackerman
were walking the streets of New
Vbrk City last October, trying to
think of an idea for a new
magazine. Suddenly a shapely
blonde came into view and
editor Ackerman whistled polite-
ly. Publisher Warren did not
whistle, but instead commented
that the blonde’s ultra-
fashionable hairdo made her
look like a monster. Unfor-
tunately the blonde overheard
this remark, and proceeded to
tell publisher Warren what a
monster HE was. Editor Acker-
man solved the dilemma by
quickly hustling both parties
into a nearby restaurant for a
cup of coffee. Soon the three
were laughing over the incident,
and Miss Fhrkas (the blonde)
jokingly suggested publishing a
magazine about “monsters.”
One thing led to another, and
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF
FILMLAND was born. Oh yes,
immediately after seeing her
name in Issue #1, Miss Farkas
sued us for $5000. So keep buy-
ing MONSTERS, gang. We
need the money.— Ed.

Hi-lites of #2: “The Monster Who Made A Man”
(the first of many features about Boris Karloff) and
“Pubhc Vampire No. 1”, a similar 10-page feature
about Bela Lugosi.

With #3 the publisher’s girlfriend was listed (just
for fun) as the Man Aging Editor, a pun picked up,
as I recall, from a piglet involving the late Tony

Boucher (then editor of THE MAGAZINE OF FAN-
TASY & SCIENCE FICTION), Evelyn Gold (then
associated with her husband H.L. Gold on the
edito^ staff of GALAXY) and myself, among ethers,
at the World Science Fiction Convention of 1958. The
Editorial was Glided “Help Stamp Out Monsters.”
The readers’ d^. featured sudh ftiture celebrities as
Richard Sheffield (The Boy Who Blended Bela
Lugcfii), and Bjo Trimble, The Girl Who Saved Star
Trek. Frank Harold’s one-line letter consisted of
“What I didn’t like; NOTHING.” To which Y& Ed
replied, “As the crook said to the judge, when ex-
pecting 99 years in jail and getting only one,
^Ulianks for the short sentence!’ ” It was in this
issue that I gave the vegetable-man from Venus his
name: Q. Kumber (IT CONQUERED THE
WCfllLD but not the box office). Featured was “The
Boy Who Became a Monster,” a photo session by

sci-fi artist Morris Scott Dollens with Thad Swift Jr. ,
who metamorphosed into a subteen monster before
our very ^es. Thad Jr. , sad to say, was one of my
failures: he didn’t heed Uncle Forty’s advice to steer
clear of drugs, got hooked when he was 12 and, ston-
ed out of his skull, in his 20s shot his wife in a
shouting match and then killed himself. This issue
introduced the teenage talent of Ron Cobb in a two-
page cartoon called “Monsters of the Matinee.” Cobb,
I am happy to say, has made a name for himself in
the movie industry: you’ll particularly recall his great
atmospheric work in ALIEN. In our first list of
Monster Qub members we now recognize two names:
Rick (Monster Maker) Baker and Jeff (author of The
Night Stalker) Rice. This April 1959 number featured
a screen treatment by me about a time then 16 years
in the future and a new Frankenstein:

The year is 1975. The place, the Swiss Alps. The
people: Dr. Thomas Freriteen, a famous suigeon; his
chanuiug European wife, Marlene; and their
American-born teenage daughter, Arlene. Soon we
will also me^ Pierre Linard, a nice young Swiss boy.
And— soon enough— the not-sonice MONSTER.

The picture opens with a big roar that rattles the
weird equipment in Dr. Frenken’s laboraloiy. The doc-
tor looks up in annoyance from the table on which
he is performing a “zeroperation” on a small animal.
His wife calms him: “This is 1975, darling, and the
fester our world moves the noisiCT it gets.” We glimpse
the noise-maker: a sleek low-flying passenger roctet.

Mth the roar of the rocket still in our ears, we
see a new scene: Arlaie and her new-found boyfriend,
Pierre, dancing to the blare of A Rocket ’n’ Roar
number at the village inn.

TROUBLE

ONfflGH

The camera takes us back and forth between the
dance racket and the fluttering locket, which we now
see is in distress. Sudinly the rocket goes out of con-
trol! It plows thru the cabl^ of the snow-lift, which
is the only way to ^ from the villas to fee Frenksns’
lodge. . .thru telephone wires. . .and eventually slams
into fee side of the mountain.

Snow is jarred loose and comes tumbling down
from the mountairtop, immediately covering the dead-
on-impact passengers.

As fee tragedy tates place practically in their back
yard, fee Frenkens get to the rocket wreck within
a matter of moments. Th^ dig frantically wife their
hands to discover if aityone is left alive. Most bodies
are smashed to bits and pieces.

IMPORTANT

CORPSE

An impressive locked briefcase is uncovered and
shortly after a body with a handcuff on it. The
bearded corpse with the handcuff looks somehow
familiar to the Frenkens, but they cannot place the
face. It looks like the briefcase had been handcuffed
to him, and that he was therefore very likely an im-
portant person. His body is smashed to pulp but
his head seems quite in one undamaged piece.

On the other hand, the body of a huge man is
found a few moments later, with a horribly crushed
face but otherwise whole.

INSPIRATION

Frenken thinks quickly of putting one and one
together (one head and one body). His wife has
some misgivings about his plan, but, after all, he
isn’t a mad scientist, suggesting the experiment for
an evil purpose; no, he genuinely hopes to save what
appears to be a very valuable human life. So the
Frenkens drag the bearded body and the heavy one
back to their laboratory and there, by candlelight,
since the rocket ripped the power-lines out, the eerie
brain transplantation takes place. Additionally, the
doctor injects the body with his potent serum,
rhodomoline, to bring the body and brain back to
life. As the once-dead man’s eyes flicker open, the
scene abruptly changes to —

Newspaper in the hands of Pierre and Arlene,
who are reading about the crash that has separated
Arlene from her parents. On the front page is an
easily recognized foto of a fatal face— the one just
brought back to life— but it is noi a great good man,
it is the notorious Gaston Garou, the modern
Bluebeard! His murder victims numbered 25!

WORSE THAN

DONOVAN’S

BRAIN

Bluebeard’s rmrder-mad brain is now in the brute-
strength body! But the Frenkens don’t know it. As
the “man” is nursed back to strength, Marlene
Frenken feels uneasy about him (as well she may).
When he’s up and about he makes two or three at-
tempts to kill her, like he did all the others, but
makes it look like accidents. One time he nearly
lops off her head while “helping” her chop wood.
Another time he almost drowns her in fee well while
they’re fetching water. But Dr. Frenken dismisses

all as coincidence or imagination on his wife’s part.

At last the secret monster is driven to try outright
murder. By choking. While the Frenkens are asleep.

THE UNDYING
MONSTER

Mrs. Frenken awakes as the monster grabs her
about the throat. Her husband leaps from bed and
fights Bluebeard all over the lab, which is wreck-
ed. Dr. Frenken pumps six bullets into the monster
without any effect. (He later realizes the life-
restoring rhodomoline must have been more power-
ful than he had imagined.)

The Bluebeard-beast jumps out the window and
escapes into the snow while Dr. Frenten s^s dazed-
ly to his wife, “Strange— a woman once wrote a
book about such a thing. About a hundred years
ago, I think. I remember seeing movies they made
about it when I was younger. From dead bodies he
took from graves or the g^ows he fashioned a man
and brought him to life— only to have his creature
become a destroying demon. They said it was soul-
less, that he had meddled with things men should
leave alone. Now dead men, on wings of flame,
fell out of the sky at my feet, and I put them together
and created a modern Frankenstein!”

He has unwittingly loosed on the world an evil
creature, powerful and perhaps unkillable!

TEENAGERS

MEET

FRANKEN-

STEIN

As the Monster is coming down the hill, Arlene
and Pierre are struggling up it. They come across
a snow-wolf with its throat tom but (strangely) very
tittle blood on the snow. Where could the blood have
gone? they wonder. And apparently the wolf was
not killed in a fight with another wolf, for what
are those manprints leading away from the body?

The teenagers stop to rest, fall asleep, and Arlene
is kidnapped by the monster, who also steals Pierre’s
snowshoes. When Arlene manages to scream, Pierre
is aroused and starts off to rescue her.

This chase leads up to a ski slide and one of the
most thrilling fights and finishes ever written for
a film. At the end, the Bluebeard Frankenstein has
the young girl (Arlene) in his arms and is at the
top of the slide, and goes skiing down it! As he flies
thm space—

But no! We can’t tell you the conclusion! You’ll
have to see the movie for yourself!

HELP

FRANKEN-

STEIN

Here’s how you can help get this Frankenstein
movie made:

Write a letter to a Studio! Go ahead, don’t be
afraid— pick out your favorite. Write to Paramount
or Warner Bros, or American-Intemational or who-
ever you think would do the best job. Tell them you
read about FRANKENSTEIN FROM SPACE in
this issue of Famous Monsters and you and all your
friends would sure tike to see it made into a movie.
Let them know you’d go not only once but twice.

And while you’re at it, make suggestions as to
who you’d like to see in the cast. Tor Johnson as
the Bluebeard Frankenstein? Christopher Lee? Who
would you pick to play the teenagers? Brigitte Bar-
dot? Russ Tamblyn? Be an Assistant Producer!

Send your letter to FRANKENSTEIN FROM
SPACE, c/o Famous Monsters, and we’ll forward
all letters to an interested Hollywood Studio.

Weaver Wright* & Budd Bankson wrote the story
of FRANKENSTEIN FROM SPACE.

*One of pseudonyms— FJA

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Sometime between FMOFffl & #3 the first issue
of W>rld Rmious Creatures appeared, the inevitable
ripoff. As I thumbed thru ite pages, I was aghast:
had I edited it in mg sleep? I counted something
like 22 phrases that were either direct quotes or
paraphrases of things I had written. If I had writ-
ten something like “Frankenstein was known in his
vUlage as a man of parts,” WFC would show a pic-
ture of Karloff as the monster, captioned say, “In
his town the villagers called Frankenstein a man
of parts.” There was one piece of phony informa-
tion I made up that didn’t exist anywhere except in
the pages of FMOF—Vse forgotten what it was now
but let’s say it was something like “In THE
MUMMY Boris Karloff was wrapped in 602 yards
of cheesecloth.” So WFC^ version was something
like “It took 602 yards of cheesecloth to swath
Karloff as the Mummy.” I considered this proof
positive that my material had been copied, since
there was nowhere on Earth this imaginary figure
existed except in FMOF. Furthermore!— it developed
that WFC was being printed in the same shop where
my material was being linotyped! It was as clear
to Jim Warren and me as the nose on Pinocchio’s
face that my stuff was being stolen and Warren in-
stituted a plagiarism suit aginst WFC. I envisioned
sudden riches. Bfong. Jilt. Zilch. I don’t suppose
I can be incarcerated for contempt of court if I don’t
name names: whoever that judge was, he was blind
as a bat flying into a kleig light, because he ex-
amined both magazines and came to the
microcephalonic conclusion that “any two persons
captioning similar stills would arrive at approx-
imately the same text.” That son-of-a-bench was text
in the haid!

THEY said, “How could you stop it? Where
would you get photos for the second issue greater
than the fi^? How could the pictures in #3 sur-
pass those in #2? Would there he enough new
material for a 4th numher?” (Well, just watch
for the sensational Specials, Exclusives and
Scoops in #5!)

THEY said, “You’d be swamped by cheap, in-
ferior imitations.”

THEY talk too much. THEM! What do they
know about IT?

FOf/— YOU are the ones we listen to, YOU
thirsting thousands upon thousands who can’t
get enou^ Ghoul-Aid, Choke-late Sodas, Vanilla
Milk-Shocks and Coca-Dracolas to soothe your
parched throats till the glorious day (today) when
you discover the new issue of FAMOUS
MONSTERS on sale! Drink ye deep! Quench
your thirst! Every page guaranteed to make yoin-
mouth water or your tongue replaced free of
charge.

DR. ACULA & HIS ZOMBIES

Forrest J Ackerman and
James Warren

Jim Warren often said this was the best cover we
ever had. It was by my client Albert Nuetzell, a
sweetheart of a man who regrettably died of cancer
some years ago, and captured that brief glimpse of
the Martian (Albert Nozaki, the suit’s codesigner)
from Wells/Pal’s WAR OF THE WORLDS. The
inside cover purported to be Dwight Frye as Ren-
field in DRACULA but later evidence suggested the
unknown actor was a sort of look-alike from toles-
que. Hottest item in the issue was a New Hamp-
shire high school teacher’s Attack on Ack. The
publisher’s defense of me follows:

THE FEARSOME
NUMBER FOUR

T hey said you couldn’t make a magazine as
great as FAMOUS MONSTERS.

THEY said it would only last one issue, the
PTA (Peasants of Transylvania Association)
would stop it.

FOR GROAN-UPS ONLY
• Kids, this is the only small portion of the
whole issue that probably won’t interest you. It’s
addressed to parents and educators.. Statement
from Publisher: Mr. William Hotin, a high
school teacher of Jaffrey, New Hamp., takes my
Editor to task for producing insidious trash,
recommends he search his conscience instead of
his pocketbook before continuing to contribute

to the moral degradation of our culture. While
appreciating Mr. Hotin’s sincere concern with
moiding the minds and mores of modern youth,
I feel he is misguided regarding FAMOUS
MONSTERS as a menacing &ctor in the mental
health of present and future America. The
salary I pay my altruistic editor is scarcely
enough to influence him to abandon the
principies of a lifetime, and Forrest Ackerman
replies:

“If FAMOUS MONSTERS had existed when
I was 8 years old, I’m sure my dearly beloved
Grandmother— and she was the last of the
angels— would have bought it for me regularly.
Among my fondest memories of her are those
of her reading Ghost Stories magazine to me and
taking me (my Grandfather holding my other
hand) to THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA,
THE CAT AND THE CANARY, etc. Before
condemning this magazine, Mr. Hotin, I feel you
must prove that Lon Chaney Sr. perverted his
life portraying monsters; that Edgar Ailan Poe
should never have picked up a pen; that Mary
Sheiley loosed a greater evil on the world than
a fictional Frankenstein; that Universai Studios
should be ashamed of itself for haviim built a
reputation with DRACULA, THE MUMMY,
etc; and that Good News Productions, principal
producers of religious movies in the USA, had
no business forming a sibling organization to
produce THE BLOB, nor a local (Hollywood)
branch of the Lutheran Church to sponsor the
filming of GRAVE-ROBBERS (now PLAN 9)
FROM OUTER SPACE. Quantitively, a single
monster movie must surely influence many times
over the number of high school students our
magazine does. We but humorously reflect on
what already exists in movie monsterdom.”

Mr. Hotin, uq' Editor (at 42) has never smoked
or drunk in his life, has no police record, is a
peace-promoting Esperantist, has received a
“Hugo” (the science fiction field’s highest award),
is regarded as a hero in the home of Ray
“Fahrenheit 451” Bradbury (who did the
screenplay of MOBY DICK and IT CAME
FROM OUTER SPACE) by Mr. Bradbury’s
monster-loving daughters, and, to cap the
climax, was recently invited to lecture on sci-fi
AND monster movies to the student body of a
Los Angeles Jr. High! The Defense rests.

—James Warren

In #4 one of Ray Bradbury’s 4 daughters,
Ramona, showed us a picture of her Dad as a
teenager wearing a Ray Harryhausen mask, and
Christina R.D. Vancheri demonstrated she was stork
staring mad by revealing, “I’m not as old as you
think; the pterodactyl dropped me in 1947,” Start-
ing with this issue we introduced a popular feature,
You Axed For It!, and sci-fi author G. Gordon

One of FM’s original cover artists; the late
Albert Nuetzell.

Dewey (now deceased) requested a still of the In-
credible Shrinking Girl from THE DEVIL DOLL,
the cinemadaptation of A. Merritt’s "Bum, Witch,
Bum!" Outrageous pun for the issue: “We would
appreciate your recipe for making super-natural
tamales, but in order to stuff them with bat meat
don’t you first have to cast a net over a bat? And
unfortunately we are fresh out of castanets.” Oi ve,
ole! “Horrib Lee Yours” was the first of many
features about Xopher Lee, who was only 35 at the
time. Warren was stiU not accepting my word that
Bela Lugosi was Ygor and not Igor in SON OF
FRANKENSTEIN and so “Igor” kept turning up
in copy from time to time. (The “Yiu May Be Right
but I’m BOSS” syndrome.) About this time die
manager of a nearby drugstore learned who I was
and commented, “I wish we could get the kids to
buy your magazine— it’s our best-stolen magazine-’
(Gulp!)

Forry, you are the
greatest guy on
Earth— Sam Sherman,
Imagi-Movie Producer

THE MASTER MANIMAL

Bela Lugosi as the Sayer of the Law on the
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS graced the cover of
our 5th issue. Albert Nuetzell’s portrayal of the ar-
tificially evolved beastman has always been one of

.ny favorites. In the readers’ dept. Flash Coulson,
a science fiction personality known today as Buck
Coulson, had a letter titled The Day The End
Whirled:

If all your monsters were laid end
to end, it would serve them right.

The day I pay for a copy of your
magazine (my trained monkey
Kween Kong steals them) it would
be the end of the world, [lb which
I replied: Flash, you are a man
after my own heart — but must
you use such a sharp knife?]

And look who turned up for the firstime in our
pages (this was in 1959): Don Glut, today’s world-
class authority on Frankenstein and Dinosaurs and
the author of the bestselling novelization of THE
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (18 weeks on the Beast
Cellar list), and Bill "Keep Witching the Skies!”
Warren.

There’s a photo of me in the issue with a Giant
Fly on my shoulder that escaped from the Captain

In the Beginning (before 1958), there were,
scattered about this' planet, numerous fans of
fantastic films. Of course, many of us didn’t call
ourselves fans back then. The name-calling
usually came from those who could not
comprehend anyone’s devotion to the worlds of
science fiction, horror and fantasy movies. A few
of us (the luckier ones) might have had one, or
at best a few, friends with whom to share our
“weirdo” interests. But most of us were most
liltoly loners, who Itopt our clipped-out newspaper
i ads, movie stills and other related treasures, to
ourselves and “our rooms.” Those were indeed
the Dark Ages.

Then, one magical day in 1958, FAMOUS
MONSTERS OF FILMLAND appeared on the
newsstands. As happened to a certain little boy
decades earlier, its cover, depicting Frankenstein’s
immortal Monster, seemed to grunt to each of
us, “Take me home.” Fortunately, we did— for
FM (as it came affectionately to be called) told
us what we wanted to know about our favorite
kinds of movies and showed us more related
photos than we ever suspected existed.

Its editor, one Forrest J Ackerman, proved to
be our Pied Piper, the one with the knowledge
that we sought (and the stills to go with it). He
seemed to be all of us combined in one package
of enthusiasm. Perhaps best of all, he was an
adult, giving some respectability to his generally
younger audience which was often criticized for,
at “our age,” being interested in such “childish”
things as monsters, demons and spaceships.

What did Forty accomplish with FAMOUS
MONTERS?

Sure, he gave us a magazine with all the photos
we had ever dreamed of seeing, the stories no
other publication would have “dared” to print.
But that was only of secondary importance.

The real significance of FM is that it brought
“us” all together. We were no longer alone, but
part of a vast network of people with the same
interests, the same passions, the same loves. And
we no longer had to keep them to ourselves.
Addresses were published so that we could all
contact each other, thereby creating new
friendships and future business associations.
Astoundingly, this magazine’s editor was
genuinely interested in what we were doing.
Forty published photos of our attempted monster
make-ups and information on our backyard
amateur-movie productions; he reproduced our
sometimes crude attempts at artwork; printed our
prose and poetry. He and FM stimulated our
creative juices and inspired us to create by giving
us, for the first time, a place where our varied
projects and creations would be welcomed
seriously and eagerly— and shown.

\\^ithout FM, many of us— now writers,
directors, producers, actors, artists, special effects
and make-up artists, even scientists— might never
have pursued our “weirdo” dreams. Instead, we
might have one day “officially” grown up,
burying our dreams to follow more “adult”
careers in the “real” world.

Speaking for all of us who were weaned on
FAMOUS MONSTERS, only to pursue our
individual stars, I say Thank You, Forty- for
creating and nurturing us. So many of us, either
directly or indirectly, “started” with FM.
Without the kind of magazine that you started,
today’s motion-picture scene, along with our
careers, might be quite different, indeed.
—Don Glut

DON GLUT is the world authority on things
Frankensteinian and is also a doyen (fdinosauria.
At one time he edited a filmonsterzine.

Co. (the left hand of publisher Warren). Pic was
shot by Warren in the old Chesterfield fleabag, er,
hotel, where he used to domicile me when I’d be
in NYC occasionally working on FMOF. Seeing the
photo reminds me that the bulbs spelling out C-H-
E-S-T-E-R-F-I-E-L-D were right outside the window
so that theoretically one could reach out and switch
bulbs or turn them off. We once contemplated in
the dead of night renaming the hotel either the
Chesterfiend or the Beasterfield . . .

HARPY NEW YEAR— 1960

The 8th Wonder of the World— King Kong-
graced our 6th cover courte^ of the artistry of
Albert NuetzeU, who added a fey touch by having
the Phantom of the Opera peeking out from behind
one of King’s tusks. The mini-Phantom made ghast
appearances on the next 2 covers and then Warren
dropped him— to my mind a mistake, because I
believe the whimsical touch prepared the purchaser
for the light-hearted fright-hearted stuff inside. And
also the phantomette could have become a mascot
like Playboy’s cover bunny, which everyone
automatically searches for. Well, that’s agua under
the damn.

Trina Petit made her debut in this issue. If you’re
au courant with the comicbook scene, you know
her today as the creator of Rosie the Riveter, Trina
Robbins. Between Frank Frazetta and Herself (my
favorite sylph of yesteryear) the eroticostume for
Vampirella was created. (Many of you readers prob-
ably don’t even know that Vampirella was my brain-
child, that I wrote the origin story, nicknamed her
Vampi, originated the inside front cover feature
call^ “Vampi’s Feary Tales,” named the readers’
dept. “Scarlet Letters,” etc.) I believe today Trina
has turned her (beautifiil) back on that stage of her
career but there was a time a quarter of a century
ago when fans and mundanes were frequently
treated to exposures of Trina’s exhilarating epider-
mis. I received a memorable letter from Playboy
back then saying a pictorial committee of 8 had con-
sidered the nude photos of Trina I had taken and
she would have been in line to be Playmate of the
Month but for the fact that she had appeared the

Forry’s Nymphet Discovery 1960

month before in Penthouse. Trina remains a dear
friend today and I trust these “revelations” do not
embarrass her, which is certainly not my intention.
I, for instance, am not embarrassed to let you know
that, years ago, after researching an article called
“Brave Nude World,” which was originally pub-
lished in a nudist magazine and later reprinted in
Fantastic, a companion to Amazing at the time, I
frequently frequented a nudist camp on Sundays for
about 5 years. (The late Theodore Sturgeon made
no secret of being a nudist. And I was paid by OM-
NI for my quote in Continuum: “If God had meant
us to be nudists we would have been born without
clothes.”)— End of digression.

EDITOR ACKERMAN has his hands full (also
his lap) as avid reader Trina Petit (now
Robbins, well-known cartoonist) expresses
wonder at imaginary issue of FMOF. Pseudo-
cover by Albert Nuetzell.

Inset is cover of Warren magazine featur-
ing Forry’s eroticartoon creation, the
fabulous female from the planet
Drakulon, Vampirella.

■51

OF ZACH & ACK

Terrorvision Horror Host Zacherley (real name
Zacherle) was featured on the cover and inside #7.
Some years later a TV talkshow hosted by one Mike
Douglas devoted a full week at 1-1/2 hours per day
to the imagi-movie field, and Zacherley, Frank Gor-
shin, Bela Lugosi Jr. and I were on the same after-
noon. For me it was a fiasco but I’m not going in-
to it all here; if interested, ask me about it some-

time if you meet me and I’ll be glad to tell you.

A reader named Irving Glassman appeared for
the firstime in Dear Monster, a consistently cogent
correspondent who unfortunately died before long.
Somewhere in 100 copies of FMOF #7 was rubber-
stamped “Lucky 7” and the readers who discovered
this message were promised FMOF for free for the
rest of their lives. I have no way of knowing if the
publisher fulfilled this promise but if so theoretically
18,300 copies were sent out complimentarily to 100
lucky readers over the remaining hfetime (183 issues
more) of the magazine. The contest idea was mine.

On page 23 were 5 unidentified drawings of a
witch. Liking at them now, 25 years later, I beheve
they were the artwork of Robert K. Murphy. Young
Bob lived to see his son born and died 2 days later
of lymphatic cancer. I never knew till a year after
his demise how highly he thought of me, when I
met his widow and she informed me he had given
my first name as a middle name to their son. I re-
main very flattered; also, that world-class fantasy
film fans Bruce & Pam Hanson middle-named their
boy after me.

MAGIC CASTLE (Horrorwood) foto shows (upper row, left to right) Robert (PSYCHO) Bloch, Mrs.
Elly Bloch, Wendayne (nee Vrahrman) the Ackerwoman, Dr. Donald A. Reed (founder of the
Count Dracula Society and the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films), unknown
fan. Lower row, left to right: Christopher (nufsed) Lee, FJA (too much said), first wife of son of
Mrs. Ackerman by previous marriage, Michael Porjes (Wendayne’s son) last on right.

You Axed For It was one of the most popular
features throughout the career of FM. Readers
wrote in requesting to see a certain scene or
player and their names appeared beneath the
stills dedicated to them. The stills selected were
of considerable interest to the rest of the readers
and so everybody was happy. In this recreation
of a you Axed For It feature, the Ackermonster
himself is featured in a series of shots taken on
the set at the time he was Creative Consultant
and script polisher on the Vincent Price Special,
Horror Hall of Fame.

These plx are dedicated to you, R. Laurraine
liitihasi, Peter Many Jr., Kristina Hallind, Jim
Morrow, Alda Maria Simoes Barbosa, ll^rk
McGee, Amy Jewett, Paul Pearson, Heidi Saha,

Joe Siclari, Gary Dorst, Ron Borst, Mark '
Frank, Bill Cobun, Gray Daniels, Mike Yerkes,
Jean-Claude Romer, Tom & Tterri Pinckard,
Greg Neff, A1 & Aiiki Drebin, Eric Hoffman,
D’bee Painter, Brian Forbes, Nathan Hind, Ron
Reynolds, Geoiges Gallet, Joe Salamanca, Oscar
Estes, Vivian Burgoon, David Bradley, Fronk &
Bobbie Bresee, Andrea Ferrari, Hiil Riley, Ken-
neth Anger, Alex Gordon, Marc Daniel Porjes,
Oskar Wahrmann, Teddy Gottlieb, Winky Cer-
von, Chen Mei, Tetsu Yano, Takumi Shibano,
EUsabetta Filippini, I^olo Aresi, Siegi & Jueigen
Menningen, I^n Jandis, Paul Tickleman, Larry
Rivulets and Alden Lorraine because. . .You
“Ack’ed” Forry It!

two Creepy People: Vincent Price and “Half Price” Ackerman.

The Creature rises from the Crypt.

A rubberneck fan hangs around the set while FJA
poses with Rick Baker’s Schlockthropus head .

■‘Come to me my Melancholy Mummy, cuddle
up and don’t be boo!”

The Phantom of the Organ, Efjay Erikman.

Sending a wire via Beastern Union.

“I Want A Girl just like the girl who
mouldered Dear Old Dad.”

Getting the “lao”down on the serpent from
The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

Who could hold a candle to the King, Boris Karloff?

The Day FJA became the World’s First Posthumous FMitor at the Hands of Orlac.
"’orrection: Vincent Price!

See page 44 of issue number 7 for a historic
photo: the present First Lady reading the first issue
of FMOF with FJA standing behind Nancy Davis
(now Reagan) with my hand on her shoulder!!!
(During World War 2 I did a story on Ronald
Reagan on the front page of the Ft. MacArtkur
Bulletin, the weekly newspaper that I edited for 3
years 5 months and 29 days in the Armed Services.
The Bulletin was an insert in the Ft. MacAnhur Alert
and, out of 2000 wartime newspapers, our col-
laborative effort was judged second most popular
each year.)

ROBINSON GREW SO

Chris Robinson was just a kid in his late teens
when we featured 4 pages on “The Robinson Gru-
so Story” in our Sep. ’60 (#8) issue. He grew up
to become a featured player in a daytime soap
opera. I know that much but as I’m not familiar
with daytime TV, I can’t tell you which series; I
believe it is one of the big hospital hits.

In this issue it was announced that “after 4 years
of brain-washing, Phyllis Farkas [Jim Warren’s girl-
friend] is about to become the bride of FAMOUS
MONSTERS’ publisher.” A Halloween wedding was
planned but instead she married the doctor in whose
office she was working at the time. When Warren
was 39 he finally married a 39-year-old woman
across the street from his apartment; I don’t think
the marriage lasted a year. (Don’t think I report such
things with any gloat in my throat, I’d be just as
willing to inform you “and they live happily to this
day.” I just state the facts, let your fancies fall where
they may.)

Forrest Ackerman has been an inspiration to
me since I was a little ghoul. I think an
autobiography of the “famous monster” himself
would he a horrifically good undertaking!

Yours Cruelly,

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

ELVIRA is the nationally syndicated horror
hostess cf the monsterrific B movies revived
jbr terrorvision.

Photo by: Uniack

GO, GO, GOGOS!

#9, Nov. 60, introduced Basil Gogos, the most
popular cover artist FMOF ever had, with a strii-
tng portrait of Vincent Price from the Winter,
Sprmg, Summer and Fall of the House of Usher

With this issue we graduated from quarterly to bi-
monMy. In Dear Monster I suggested to readers
that if they would like to see an Ackermanthology
of terror tales, they should let Ballantine know I
was ready, willing and able to produce such col-
lections as “Tales from Transylvania,” “Ackerman’s
Graveyard Shift” or “Beware of Monster.” Tm still
waiting for an invitation.

One Bill Obbagy turned up for ihtjirstime among
the readers, a fan who was to enjoy the limelight
for several years as the creator of the Bela Lugosi
Club. Cartoonist Basil Wolverton of Lena the Hyena
fame (L’il Abner comic strip) had a 2-page fan-
tasticartoon feature called “It Can Happen to You.”
Amongst the Monster Club Members was Jimmy
Carter of Alabama. Could it be — ? No, that way
lies madness. Mark McGee turned up, and he turn-
ed out to be the author of the absorbing book about
AIP, the studio that gave us so many of the Rte pix,
Verne and Lovecraft.

Ron Haydock! — little did I dream the anguish that
Chicago kid was to cause me one day! When he
first turned up at my door I thought it was some
miracle of time travel whereby my 21-year-old self
had come forward from the past to confront me.
For a year he practically lived in my home— I
remember one night I let him stay up till dawn using
my typewriter so he could show a script to a pro-
ducer (Bert 1. Gordon, if I recall correctly) the first
hing in the morning. Our relationship was a typical
All About Eve” story, where, after he had learned
ill he could from the old editor, he set out to con-
act aU my contacts, sweet-talk my writers into con-
ributing to him and put me out of business with
a monster magazine of his own. I don’t feel like
going into the whole sordid story, it would take up
too much space and we’ve got 180 more issues to
cover. But I vividly recall a long-distance caU from
Warren to Haydock when I was in Warren’s New
York apartment, Jim yelling and screaming at
Haydock and tongue-lashing and cursing him for

being an ingrate, the bottom line being “You don’t
* that to a man who’s befriended you as Forry has.”
But he did, he wasn’t successful, and he was killed
on the road hit-&-run while hitch-hiking back to
CaUfornia one time from Chicago. Again: 1 don’t
gloat, just reporting the facts, make of them what
you will. I scarcely think anybody who betrays me
in business deserves to die although I can think of
about half a dozen people on whom I could wish
herpes (but not AIDS).

Another Monster Club member: Dick Ciark. You
think—? Naw. . .

ONCE

We were fortunate in our 10th issue (Jan. ’61) to
introduce Robert Bloch for ihefirstime. In connec-
tion with Bob’s 8-page feature, publisher Warren
stated:

Note from the Publisher: My lazy editor, who com-
plains about having to write the eruire issue himself
month in and month out, has for 3 years been bring-
ing up the name of Robert Bloch and several others
and begging me (or bugging me is more like it) to
publish something by same. The foregoing article is
in the nature of an experiment.

To bring MENACE, ANYONE? to you in readily
readable form, FJA had to change many of the
frighteningly erudite words in Mr. Bloch’s enviable
vocabulary, such as “evocations", “limned”, “afi-
cionado", “hyperbole", “ersatz”, “vicarious", etc, on
the theory that if Your Publisher didn't understand
them and couldn't pronounce them, then most of you
young readers would probably be lost too. Serious-
ly: this is a test case which, ifsucces^l, could result
in bringing you further think-pieces from a variety
cf sources, such as another Bloch-buster called “The
Clown at Midnight," a study of the pictures of Poe
by Giovanni Scognamillo, etc. Please let us know
your reactions! Do you want an occasional serious
article by an “outside" writer in future issues, or
do you prefer that our editor continue with the same
kind of all-Ackerman material that’s been featured
heretofore?— James Warren.

Dear Monster metamorphosed to Fang Mail with
a fangtastic heading drawn by Jack Davis.

long live karloff —
king of the monsters!

FRANKENSTEIN!

One name looms above all others when we think
of the misshapen screen monster who has haunted
the nightmares of moviegoers for a quarter of a cen-
tury: BORIS KARLOFF!

One hundred and forty years ago— beyond the
memoiy of any living man or woman, altho Dracula
and the Mummy probably remember the occasion
well— a daring teenager wrote the book, “Franken-
stein.” She was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, age 17.
In 18S7 in London, Charles Edward Pratt was bom,
a boy who was destined in his early 20s to cross
the broad Atlantic ocean and, at the age of 45 and

under another name, bring to life upon the screen
the shuddersome creation of Mary Shelly.

MONSTER PIECE

In the 25 years or more since Victor Franken-
stein (Colin Clive) turned the great ray that first
brought life into the world upon the body that had
never lived— the body that he pieced together from
corpses stolen from hangmen’s gallows and deserted
graveyards after midnight— Boris Karloff as the
Frankenstein Monster has become a living legend.
Almost a baker’s dozen of other actors have at one
time and another thru the years played the same

“Knock knock!” “Who’s there?” “THE
RAVEN.” “Raven who?” “You’d be raven mad
too if you slept so long that your face looked
like Rip Van Wrinkle!” says Boris Karloff of
himself In this scene from the Edgar Allan Poe
picture.

role, in movies and television: Bela Lugosi, Lon
Chaney Jr., Glenn Strange, Prima Carnero and
Christopher Lee among the nearly 13 different men;
but whenever fans of Frankenstein gather there is
only One True Monster for them: BORIS
KARLOFF!

Truly, the role of the Frankenstein Monster made
a Man of Distinction out of an obscure ex-truck-
driver named Bill Pratt.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

“How’s that?” you say, if you’ve been paying
strict attention up to now. You thought Mr. Karloffs
real name was Charles Edward Pratt? Well, so did
we, till somewhere else we read (in the first issue
of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, to be
precise!) that his name was originally William
Henry Pratt! It was another famous “Bill,” short
for William Shakespeare, who first asked the ques-
tion “Whafs in a name?”, and in this case we are
now sincerely puzzled.

Along with our hundreds of thousands of readers,
we would like to know whether Mr. Karloff was
bom WILLIAM HENRY Pratt or CHARLES ED-
WARD Pratt.

Paging Boris Karlojf!

I^rhaps, Mr. Monster, you will be so kind (if you
are that kind of a monster!) to drop a line to our
magazine and settle the question once and for all

of the name with which you were born?

Frankly, we wouldn’t be too surprised if it turned
out to be either William Henry or Charles Edward
FRANKENSTEIN!

KARLOFF OF THE APES

In researching this article on the life of Boris
Karloff, we uncovered an amazing fact. Not only
did he appear in at least 5 other motion pictures
before he made his big hit in FRANKENSTEIN,
but it is believed that his first film (a silent serial)
was none other than a TARZAN picture!

TARZAN AND THE GOLDEN LION!

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ great jungle thriller!

Yes, if you ever have the opportunity to see a
revival of this Tarzan production made in the year
1927, look closely and you may recognize Boris
Karloff. (There is no tmth to the rumor that he
played one of the apes.)

In the same year of ’27 he had a part in a funny
film called TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS.

In 1929 he appeared in the mystery picture,
BEHIND THAT CURTIAN.

THE CRIMINAL CODE was one of the two
movies he made in 1931 , then— 1932 and the birth of
the Monster! [1931, I know now, was the correct
year.-FJA, 1986.]

The airborne operating table descended from the
dizzying heights where the electrical energies of the
thunder and lightning storm had played upon the
unliving body shrouded in white sheets. . .the pale
limp hand, severed at the wrist and stitched together,
slowly raised itself— alive . . .the Frankenstein
monster breathed!

And the audience held its breath.

HAUNTED
HOUSEHOLD WORD

After FRANKENSTEIN, the name of Boris
Karloff became known throughout the world. The
“Karloff’ he had borrowed from an ancestor of his
Mother’s, the “Boris” had been chosen as a
theatrical first name simply because it appealed to
Mr. Pratt and seemed to fit his personality.

Boris Karloff became the new Lon Chaney.

The same year he made FRANKENSTEIN,
Karloff appeared in an entirely different make-up
as a scarred and scarey, dark-skinned and dumb
menace with beetling brows and a great broken nose
in THE OLD DARK HOUSE. Charles Laughton,
Raymond Mass^ and Ernest Thesiger were among
the actors he gave a bad time in this scream-packed
picture. Afraid that audiences would be unable to
believe that this was the same Boris Karloff they
had fainted from earlier in the year in FRANKEN-
STEIN, the President of the company (Universal)
wrote a message at the beginning of THE OLD
DARK HOUSE informing the public that the
menacing man was indeed the very same actor.

“Knock knock”
“Who’s there? ” “ Fu
“Fu who?” “Fu
Manchu, but don’t
Manchu’n it to
anyone!” From THE
MASK OF FU MANCHU,
starring Boris Karloff.

4 ?

“Tell me the tooth, now, don’t you think I’m
beautiful?” asks the Great B.K. in his new British
picture, HAUNTED STRANGLER.

SNOWBALL
AND FIREBALL

Karloffs success snowballed and he became the
hottest thing in horror pictures. In 1933 he was cast
opposite Bela Lugosi in THE BLACK CAT and
played a devil-worshipper with a satanic haircut.
The same year he portrayed THE MAN WHO
DARED and THE MUMMY who lived 3000
years. [3700.]

In 1934 Karloff returned to the land of his birth,
England, to star in THE GHOUL. Perhaps he
revisited Dulwich, where he was born; and if he
did, did the townspeople run screaming in terror,
or did they little dream that a monster walked among
them? One wonders, too, what his instructors
through! of him now, those teachers at Kings Col-
lege of London University from whom he had
received his final education. What had they taught
him to prepare him to so well portray monsters?
At any rate, he reported to the studio where, in the
company of Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Ernest
Thesiger, he turned in his usual chilling perfor-
mance. Boris Karloff would probably also have
made good as an ice man!

FIVE IN ’35

Nineteen thirty-five was a year of great activit}
for “our hero.”

Burned and scarred and uglier than ever, Boris
returned in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN,
Charles Laughton’s real life wife, Elsa Lanchester,
took one look at the reel life monster she was sup-
posed to be the bride of, and let out such a screech
that it broke poor Franky’s heart and he blew the
whole castle to kingdom come. Next thing you
knew, he was in THE BLACK ROOM.

In THE BLACK ROOM the audience got dou-
ble its money’s worth, for the first time Karloft
played two roles: he was Count Gregor, a ruthless
killer, who lived in constant fear of his twin brother.
Anton, because of an ancient prophecy that
predicted that he would be killed by Anton. Ont
by one Gregor lured victims to the chamber of hor-
rors in his castle and there killed them. Gregoi
thought to thwart his fate by killing his own bro^e
before he could kill him, and this he did and threv
Anton into a pit in the Black Room. But by a strung'
twist of fate, Gregor was killed by his deat
brother— ty falling on a dagger held in Anton’s stif
hand!

In THE INVISIBLE RAY the touch of Karloff ^
tiniest finger spelled death for he had become
radioactive thru contamination by a meteorite rich
in radium. He killed his old pal Lugosi before him
self catching fire and going up in smoke.

The same year he made THE MIRACLE MAN

And wound up in 1935 with a repeat performance
with Lugosi, in Edgar Allan Poe’s THE RA/EN.
where he had only one good eye in a half-paralyzed
face and twisted body.

NEW SLANT IN ’37

After resting a year, Boris returned in 1937 with
a series of Oriental characterizations. These ex-
tended to 1938 and ’39. He was first seen as the
diabolical Chinese scientist who aimed at conquer-
ing the world in THE MASK OF FU MANCHU,
and later as MR. WONG, DETECTIVE and MR.
WONG IN CHINATOWN; also as an Oriental
soldier in WEST OF SHANGHAI. In CHARLIE
CHAN AT THE OPERA, however, he was an Oc-
cidental villain.

In 1937’s THE NIGHT KEY he was a kindly in-
ventor for a change, who simply had the bad for-
tune of running afoul of crooli.

In ’38 he appeared in THE INVISIBLE
MENACE and then—

FRANKENSTEIN

RETURNS

Karloff got together with Lugosi again and the
result was SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. In Los
Angeles members of the world’s oldest science fic-
tion club turned out en masse to see the opening
of the new Frankenstein film.

Time marches on; Karloff shambles on. He
makes DEVIL’S ISLAND, THE LOST PATROL,
BRITISH INTELLIGENCE, THE FATAL HOUR,
YOU’LL FIND OUT, BEDLAM, THE CLIMAX
and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

That’s not very nice, Boris, tickiing that
iady on her throat iike that, you 're liable to
make her laugh and forget you’re THE
GHOUL.

In THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG he
is Dr. Savaard, inventor of a mechanical heart with
which he hopes to bring the dead back to life. As
he is experimenting on a volunteer student whom
he has “temporarily” killed, the police break into
his laboratory and ruin everything. He is con-
demned as a criminal and hanged for murder. After
his death his faithful assistant recovers his body and
restores him to life, but his brain has deteriorated
in the process and he is no longer the kindly scien-

Val Hobson is a gal who really has her back to
the wall in this cozy scene from THE BRIDE
OF FRANKENSTEIN.

list but now a vengeance-seeking killer. In his mad
desire for revenge he launches a campaign of ter-
ror and before he is through has caused the death
of 6 of the jurors who sentenced him to die. When
the police finally corner him his daughter is elec-
trocuted in the struggle and he is fatally wounded.
Before he dies for the second and last time, he
brings his daughter back to life with the mechanical
heart and then destroys his invention.

In THE WALKING DEAD his role is similar
to that of the last described picture. After having
been unjustly killed in the electric chair, he is
brought back to life by a fellow experimenter, and
spends the rest of the time frightening to death the
men who were responsible for his death.

In THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES instead of
Dr. Savaard he is Dr. Kravaal, Leon Kravaal, who
has been carrying on research into curing diseases
by “frozen sleep.” In a secret underground ice-
chamber beneath his own deserted island home,
after a 10 year disappearance Dr. Kravaal is found
by a young doctor fend. Following instructions
found in a note next to Karloffs body, the scientist
succeeds in bringing Karloff and 4 other ’‘guinea
pig” men back to life. When Karloff tries to put
the 4 men back into suspended animation, they do
not survive the freezing process and die, and he
turns a curious eye on his young assistant and his
girlfriend. The boy and girl resent the idea of
becoming popsicles, and fortunately are rescued at
the last minute.

In BEFORE I HANG, Karloff portrays Dr. John
Garth, who is seeking a serum that will keep peo-
ple forever young. During his experiments to pro-
long life, he kills a man and is himself sentenced
to death. But even in prison, with the help and sym-
pathy of the prison doctor, Dr. Howard (Edward
Van Sloan), he continues his experiments. Just
before his execution, Karloff gives himself a dose

of his crash-created serum. Unfortunately it is from
the blood of a murderer. He falls unconscious, and
during this time word is received that he will be
imprisoned for life rather than having his life taken.
When he comes to the serum is seen to be a suc-
cess, for he is amazingly younger. Dr. Howard asks
for the serum for himself, but Karloff, influenced
by the murderer’s blood, turns on his benefactor
and strangles him. He then kills another prisoner
in order to make it look like self-defense. Pardoned,
Karloff engages in a series of killings, the victims
being those who originally scoffed at his experi-
ment. His own daughter is finally the one who has
to lead the police to her mad Father, and he is killed
resisting capture.

GRAVE PICTURES

Karloff has had much to do with cemeteries.
Remember THE BODY SNATCHERS, the Robert
Louis Stevenson story where he was a grave rob-
ber? And the eerie ISLE OF THE DEAD? And
one of his latest, VOODOO ISLAND?

But not all of his pictures have been grave. Some
have been comical, as THE SECRET LIFE OF
WALTER MITTY with Danny Kaye, DICK
TRACY MEETS GRUESOME, ABBOTT &
COSTELLO MEET THE KILLERS, ABBOTT &
COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE
and THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU.

On and on the list goes, Karloff lisping, leering,
loping, lurking thru THE STRANGE DOOR, THE
BLACK CASTLE, THE APE, SCARFACE,
BLUEBEARD, JUGGERNAUT.

In THE DEVIL COMMANDS (available in
pocketbook form as “The Edge of Running Water”
by William Sloane) he sought to reach the ghost-
world of the dead by a new kind of radio, and in
THE MAN WHO LIVED AGAIN he transferred
himself into the body of another man.

VACATION FROM
GREASEPAINT

Once or twice Boris Karloff has left off making
monstrous pictures long enough to turn his atten-
tion to something else, and that resulted in 1943
in the production of a 317-page book called Tales
of Terror. In it he gathered together 14 frightening
stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Bram (Dracula) Stoker,
O. Henry and other masters of mystery. Included
were such spooky stories as “The Tell-Tale Heart,”
“The Beast with 5 Fingers,” “The 'Whxwork,” “The
Hound” etc. ; all guaranteed by Mr. Karloff to send
shivers up and down spines like yo-yo’s.

So successful was Mr. Karloff’s venture as a
picker of hair-raising stories that in 1946 he put
together a bigger volume. Called AND THE
DARKNESS FALLS, it featured no less than 69
“masterpieces of horror and the supernatural” in
its giant 631 pages with world famous authors like

“Wait’ll I catch the guy who sold me that hair tonic!” thinks Boris Karloff to himself after
looking at his billiard-ball smooth head in TOWER OF LONDON.

Somerset Maugham, John Collier, Algernon
Blackwood, H.P. Lovecraft, etc.

FRANKENSTEIN— 1970

Still going strong, tho he has turned 70, Karloff
the Great is making a whole spate of new horror
movies for his legions of admirers. No doubt by
the time you pick up this magazine you will already

have thrilled to his latest, FRANKENSTEIN— 1970
and THE HAUNTED STRANGLER, and his next
two will be CORRIDORS OF BLOOD and
DOCTOR OF 7 DIALS.

Just one question: in that unhappy future when
Boris Karloff is no longer with us except in memory,
movies and television, who will they ever be able
to find to play him in the story of his life, THE
MONSTER WHO MADE A MAN? •

ACKERMAN, GO HOME!

FOUR SCARE and 7 fears ago
Our four fathers brought forth
Upon this continent a new magazine,
Conceived in lunacy and dead-icated
To the proposition that
ALL MONSTERS ARE CREATED!

as myself. I only buy your
magazine occasionally for the
biographies of the stars and the
plots of the old movies; but the
new policy, if implemented, would
force me to subscribe. I believe
you are making a big mistake in
“talking down” to your teenage
audience’s level as interpreted by
Mr. Ackerman. He is capable of
much better writing than he cur-
rently produces in your magazine.
By all means give Ackerman a rest
or make him lift his standards and
help make your magazine worthy
of the support and enjoyment of
the many true horror fans that have
no periodical to represent them at
the present time.

SIDNEY H. BROWN
BRONX, N.Y.

In the 11th issue (Apr. ’61) Sidney H. Brown of the
Bronx, NY, Ackermangled me mercilessly:

As an “aficionado” (see, I can
use the word properly) of the old-
fashioned horror movie, I am very
pleased to see that you are attemp-
ting to turn your magazine into
something that the serious horror
fan can eagerly await and enjoy
from the poor collection of high
school type puns that beloved F.
J. Ackerman seems to think his
“fuzzy-faced” audience thrives
on. I’m no teenager any more but
I believe that Mr. Ackerman
underestimates his teenage au-
dience. The majority would enjoy
some real information about the
horror movies. I also believe you
would attract more adult fans such

• This is the publisher, James
Warren, responding. Let’s see if
I can set the facts straight once
and for all. No one was more
disappointed than Forrest J
Ackerman when 1 had to break
the news to him that not only
could I not use his title of
WONDERAMA but that the
m^azine would have to be
slanted at young teens rather
than adults. He almost backed
out of the project then and there,
and without him FAMOUS
MONSTERS would never have
been born. The decision was not
even mine: it was forced on me
in order to obtain distribution
on the newsstands. Do you
understand that? I could have
produced the imaginative movie
magazine Forry Ackerman

dreamed df and was capable of
creating in iiterate fashion for
cinema scholars and fantasy en-
thusiasts, hut it wouldn’t have
done him or you or me any good
stacked up in a warehouse un-
distributed! I never anticipatted
more than one issue but No.
1 was such a runaway success
that I commissioned Forry to
prepare a second number; only
now, to his despair, I instructed
him to lower the level of writing,
this decision being based on the
fan mail received. I hope I am
putting across the point that he
had no choice, and not because
I am a villain, or hate adults,
but because my principal
motivation for publishing FM is
to make money. Purists often
lose track of this fact when mak-
ing impractical demands like
“drop all the advertising.” Fbr

my money, Forry has done a
heroic job with the magazine.
Those who attempted to imitate
him— World Fhmous Creatures,
Monster Parade, Screen Chills,
Monsters & Things and The
Frankenstein Journal— all fail-
ed. But you are now holding in
your hands the Uth issue of a
magazine that was only expected
to last one issue, and there is
every reason to believe “there’ll
always be a FAMOUS
MONSTERS’— at least as long
as I can get Forry Ackerman to
go on writing it for me. . .and
you. No one who has ever read
his Lon Chaney story, “Letter to
An Angel”; his oft-reprinted and
translated “Mute Question”; or
any of his many articles and
stories in adult periodicals under
his own name and pen names
such as Weaver Wright and

Spencer Strong;— no one ac-
quainted with his work outside
FM can doubt that Forrest J
Ackerman can indeed write. But
the point I want to hammer
home over and over again is that
even if Robert Bloch or Irving
Glassman or Boris Karloff were
to be Editor of FAMOUS
MONSTERS, they would have
to comply with my instructions
as publisher or else there would
be no magazine. But we are
strong enough now to begin to
experiment a bit in the dilution
of more mature material and I
can assure you no one is more
pleased than Forry Ackerman
hi^elf. You should be gratified
with our company’s new
publication SIACEMEN, which
starts off with its #1 issue (see
page 46) on a higher level than
it was possible with FM— J.W.

Amongst the Monster Club members we find a
name destined to rise to fame in the special effects
world, Academy Award Winner Dennis Muren.
Alex Soma: he graduated from fan to pro, editing
a short-lived imagi-movie magazine. SPACEMEN
was announced, the Starlog of its day, the scienti-
filmagazine that I was permitted to edit in an orbit
somewhat more elevated than FMOF. It was my pet
project. I worked harder on it and was rewarded
less financially well than for FMOF. But there wasn’t

the interest in rockets and other worlds that there
was in rhedosauruses and menaced girls. Declar-
ing that he wasn’t a philanthropist and was losing
$5000 an issue, Warren grounded my spacemen
with the 9th issue— but not before I had inserted
an in-joke to the Ib Melchior film THE TIME
TRAVELERS where, as Technician #3 in an an-
droid factory, when a player asked me how I was
doing, I answered, “Don’t worry. I’m keeping our
spacemen happy!”

ON NEWSSTANDS MARCH 2, 1961

Same format as FAMOUS MONSTERS. Same
high quality, low price. Chockful of exciting fotos,
exclusive features. Sensational full color covers by
your favorites: Albert Nuetzell and Basil Gogos —
and watch for our Super Cover by the Dean of
Science Fiction Artists, Frank R. Paul!

SPACEMEN, tho it will frequently sparkle with
FJAs famous humor, will be a less punful, more
serious publication than its parent. Its slant will be
toward adults as well as teens and subteens. SPACE-
MEN will be devoted to articles, fiction and fotos
about FLASH GORDON, THE FORBIDDEN
PLANET. WAR OF THE WORLDS, THIS

ISLAND EARTH, THE GIRL IN THE MOON
and the whole spectrum of space spectacles, prin-
cipally conceived and written by ^itor Forrest J
Ackerman but with exciting Guest Appearances by
such Space Aces as George 1^1, Curt Siodmak, Ray
Bradbury, William Alland, Weaver Wright, Thea
von Harbou and many others.

Rocket— do not walk— to your nearest newsstand,
space station or rocketport and ask the dealer to
reserve the First Issue of SPACEMEN. Get it NOW
before the price skyrockets up to $l a copy for back
issues. Or get your Collector’s Edition in the mail
for only 35 cents.

For some reason the front cover has come loose
on every copy of #11 I’ve ever seen, including my
own file copy.

“Forry’s love of the genre is a
child’s wonder, untouched by the
sophistication which eventually
corrupts. But this childish love
which has been coupled with the
enthusiasm of a man who has
found the thing which God made
him to do and is doing it with a
unique style and an eneigy which
never seems to flag. Forry was the
first; he was the best and he is the
best. He stood up for a generation
of kids who realized that if it was
junk, it was magic junk.”

—Stephen King

PROPHETIC? PATHETIC!

In the editorial in the 12th issue, June ’61, 1 con-
jectured: “At the present rate of ever-spiraling
economic inflation, the FAMOUS MONSTERS of
the year 2000 will probably cost $2.50 a copy.”
$2.50? The filmonsterzine of 2000, if we haven’t
all been cremated equal before then, will probably
be more like $25! (Won’t I look silly a second time
in 2000 when periodicals cost $250 a copy!)

I remember being thrilled with Gogos’ cover of
Oliver Reed, the accursed werewolf.

An interesting letter by fabulous fantasy artist
George Barr. POem by Koyie Chapeque, ft)et
Laureate of Toboria in the 21st Century:

Hobots of the World, Arise!

You’re as good as other guys!

You can outdo all Man’s plans,

Tho your parents were tin cans.

I was, of course, Koyle Chapeque, also Mahar-
ba Merritt, author of the feature “Metal Monsters.”
I’d forgotten about this next item:

FOREWORD: Once upon a time (difficult as it
may be to realize for those who have long made this
magazine a Way of Ufe) there was no FAMOUS
MONSTERS! In those barren ancient times, how-
ever, I wrote reviews cf monster, horror, fantasy and
sci-fi films for a variety of publications, and far the
readers of a monthly magazine in Scotland my most
forthright opinions. Perhaps I was most ruthless
overseas because my words were published 6000
miles from the scene of the crimes and I felt that few
producers, directors, writers, actors or anyone con-
nected with the productions would see my criticisms
(often scathing) and have their feelings hurt. For, ac-
tually, Ido not relish making people feel bad; I have
a tender heart; the heart of a small boy (and some
say a head to match).

Now it may seem a bit like biting the claw that
feeds one to pan pictures in the pages cfa periodical
that depend on monster movies good or bad.
However, / am all for giving praise where due. If
a hindsighted kick in the hindquarters will help im-
prove the future of Hollywood’s product, then it is
hoped that those concerned will approve of my dis-
approving of the disappointing— and that you readers
will be entertained in the process.

—Forrest J Ackerman

Famous Monsters’ own Dr. Acula

“Inside Darkest Acula’Mhe Bimonthly Moment of
Truth— didn’t last very long, as you will learn why
before long.

In this issue I had the great pleasure of present-
ing the first of 2 parts of John W. Campbell Jr.’s
famous “Who Goes There?”, basis of the twice-
filmed sf horror film THE THING (from Another
World). Here is how I introduced it:

You are about to read a specially condensed ver-
sion cf an authentic science-horror-suspense classic.
Perhaps far the firstime, perhaps far the 5th— people
do read and re-read Gc^ There?”; have done
ever since it first shocked a couple hundred thou-
sand readers in the pages o/ Astounding Science-
Fiction back in August of 1938. Since then it’s been
anthologized in hard covers and soft, translated in-
to foreign languages (“Wer Da?”) and— of course-
made into a real monster movie.

THE THING. THE THING FROM ANOTHER
WORLD. It leapt upon a startled world offilmgoers
10 years ago in 1951.

Its author had his first sci-fi. story published in
1930. R>r the past quarter century he has been
editing Astounding Science-Fiction, Mch periodical
last year changed its name to Analog Science Fact
& Fiction. He is the only individual who has ever
been triple-time selected as Guest of Honor of the
annual W)rld S.E Conventions. He edited 39 numbers
cfa no longer published, still lamented treasure trove
of weird, supernatural, qfftrail and unusual tales
called Unknown Worlds. In the pages of the latter
Merlinesque magazine appeared stories selected
by Campbell destined far TV and films: “Cartwright’s
Camera” by Nelson Bond, “Conjure Wife” by Fritz
Leiber Jr. ; reprints far Zacherley collections such as
“The Witch” and “The Ghost” by AE van \bgt, “He
Didn’t Like Cats” by L. Ron Hubbard; and
monstrously entertaining works which may yet reach
the TV or the cinema screen, spleen-freezers by
Robert Bloch, Robert Arthur, Cleve Cartmill, Henry
Kuttner, Jack Williamson— even John W. Campbell
Jr. himself behind his mask cf Don A. Stuart!

Why, you may ask, was it “specially condens-
ed”? Because, as I recall, Jim Warren was not will-
ing to run all 28,000 words and ordered me to cut
it in half. I remember doing this with bloodshot eye-
balls in a blinding rush, up half the night pruning
a word, a sentence here, a paragraph there, con-
densing a sequence to a synopsis.

THE THING as described by John Campbell
and visualized by George Barr. A 3-eyed, 4’
squat, compact alien of malevolence incarnate,
strange skull perched atop scrawny neck,
writhing blue worm-forms framing its ferocious
face and matting its head where ha& should nor-
mally be, 4 serpentine tentacles in place of arms.
Next issue— can you take it?— the Hollywood ver-
sion of THE THING: actual closeups from the
film!

The covers kept falling off this issue too.

“BEST ISSUE EVER”

#13, Aug. ’61, was a landmark issue with 100
pages instead of the usual 68. I hated the cover
because the Frankenstein was not Karloff— I don’t

issue? Otherwise, I was thrilled with the issue. I
thought the 2-page layout of the Table of Contents
the most dramatic presentation we ever had, the
“fantastic facts and useful information culled from
the complete file of the first 12 issues of FAMOUS
MW5TEKS’’ the kind of readers’ service I approved
of. (Incidental intelligence: I’d featured 46 photos
of K^loff to date and 41 of his running mate Lugosi,
out of a total of over 625 stills.) “The Luckiest Boy
in the World” (as he considered himself to be) was
a fun feature about httle Stevie Mazin, monster fan
who had the good fortune to live next door to me
at the time. He came back to see me as a grownup.

know who it was supposed to be but I detested it. My wife, under her maiden name, contributed

Still do. Why couldn’t the covers detach from this the feature still talked about 25 years later:

European-born Wendayne Wahrman saw SIEGFRIED, RULER OF THE WORLD, F.P.I., AN
INVISIBLE MAN GOES THRU THE CITY, the DR. MABUSE series and other fantastic German films
in the land of their origin at the time they were first shown.

She has been entertained in the homes of Fritz (Girl in the Moon) Lang, Brigitte (Airaune) Helm,
Curt (Donovan’s Brain) Siodmak, Ray (it Came from Outer Space) Bradbury, Wiliy (Conquest of
Space) Ley, Ray (Mighty Joe Young) Harryhausen and other producers, directors, authors and film
players.

She has been a guest at the Studios on the sets with George Pai, Kurt Neumann, Chesley
Bonesteli, Jerome Bixby, James Nicholson, Alex Gordon, Bert I. Gordon, William Aliand, ib
Meichior, Tom Gries ana many other motion picture personalities concerned in production of
imagi-movies.

She has watched the filming of DESTINATION MOON, ROCKETSHIP X-M, IT!— THE TERROR
FROM BEYOND SPACE, ATTACK OF THE SAUCERMEN.THE SHE-CREATURE, THE SPIDER, THE
MAGNETIC MONSTER, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, RIDERS TO THE STARS, etc.; seen in their
original preview form THiS ISLAND EARTH, FORBIDDEN PLANET, NAKED JUNGLE, THEM!, THE
INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, BLACK SLEEP, CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF and many others. '

She was a personal friend during the last days of his iife of Beia Lugosi.

in other words, Wendayne Wahrman is a very knowledgeable individual in the realm of fantrastic
filmdom, and she here shares with the readership of FAMOUS MONSTERS some 2500 words worth
of observations & opinions arrived at in over a quarter of a century of rocketing everywhere from
the Red Planet to the Rue Morgue via cinema seat and library research.

Wendayne was teaching science at the time and
at school one day a breathless gym teacher burst
Into her room, calling her aside and inquiring
wonderingly, “Isn’t this you—V." The Phys. Ed.
teacher was pointing to the photo accompanying
part 1 of the feature, saying, “I just took this
magazine away from a student, it was open to this
page, and I suddenly thought this picture looked
familiar!” Incidentally, the magazine was not taken
away from the student (it was given back after
school) because of its content but because of a rule
against reading anything other than textbooks in
class.

HORRORWOOD

CONTEST

In #14, Oct. '61, amateur makeup fans learned
how one among them could win a trip to HoUyweird
and appear in an imagi-movie. There was the first
appearance in Fang Mail of a fan who would later
move to LA, befriend me— and betray me in a big
way. Thru a ruse he got away with one of my per-
sonal scrapbooks of Bela Lugosi’s, and I think he
was also the one who stole my soundiscs of the 1931
FRANKENSTEIN, which Carl Laemmle Sr. , then
president of Universal Studios, had arranged for me
to acquire when I was 16. Years after the theft an
unidentified voice called me on the phone saying,
“Mr. Ackerman, I think I have a collector’s item
you’d like very much to own: the phonograph discs
from FRANKENSTEIN. I’m asking $7500.”
[About $10,000 by today’s inflated standards.] “Oh,”
I said, “is that what my records are worth?” “What
do you mean?” “They were stolen from me in the
first place.” “Oh, no, I’ve had these about 10 years,”
“Yes, it was about 10 years ago that they were
stolen.” Qick!

Oh, oh! Two more Bad News names turn up for
the firsttime in this issue. One tried to cause some
commotion involving Geoige Pal and me but in the
meantime he’s strai^tened up and flying right, do-
ing good work in the art end of imagi-movies, and
I bear him no malice; the other is the infamous one
who stole my Dracula ring (on top of about 50 stills)
after I gave him the run of the original Ackerman-

sion every Saturday afternoon, and he’s never
foigiven me that I found him out. To this day he’ll
badmouth me at the drop of a bat to anyone who’ll
listen. In case he reads this do you think he’ll

Rimous Monsters made our
search for arcane knowledge
enjoyable— editor Forrest J
Ackerman kept the tone light.
One could get lost in FM and
yet find one’s way back. Like a
good movie, it involved us
thoroughly, then returned us to
the— somehow altered (for the
better)— light of day.

— Donald C. Willis
Imagi-Movie Authority

appreciate that I haven’t shamed him by publishing
his name? Is Godzilla sweet-tempered? Does
Dracula hate blood? Did Dr. Jekyll love Mr. Hyde?
The answer to all four is a resounding NO!

George Pal in high spirits at Hoilywood kieig-
light re-premiere of WAR OF THE WORLDS on
its 25th anniversary.

INSIDE THE >
ACKERMANSION

At left, original Ackermansion livingroom.
Below, workers help to dismantle and
pack for moving. Top right, cartons filled
with nostalgia as FJA gets some help
(below) creating son of Ackermansion

WONDERS OF THE ACKERMUSEUM. Above, left to right, pastel cover by Margaret
Brundage for a We/rd Tales of the 1930s; FMOF cover of King Kong & the Pteranodon; the
Kong Pteranodon itself beside a still of it & Kong; as far as is known, the only King Kong
jigsaw puzzle left in the world; Mystery magazine featuring a serialization of a novelization
of KING KONG; a reproduction of a Fantastic cover; Below, left to right, DRACULA poster;
Automobile on Mars drawn late 20s by my maternal grandfather, George Herbert Wyman,
architect of “the Bradbury,’’ the LA building with the futuristic interior featured in Demon
with the Glass Hand, Night Strangler and BLADE RUNNER; portrait of the Karloffrankenstein
monster by Larry Byrd; Buck Rogers popup book from the 30s; unpublished giant wasp
cover by Frank R. Paul, 1939; repros by Albert Nuetzell of Fantasy & Science Fiction covers;
repro of Paul cover for first Science Wonder by Albert Nuetzell.

WOULD YOU buy a used car from this man? (Note: Lugosi’s Dracula ring on finger.)

Originai Dorian Gray by Dick Smith.

A Waii of Awards.

CULT QUEEN Marline Beswicke during a visit with FJA.

THIS WAS a kitchen — ?! Yes, in the former created for his role in Ray Bradbury’s THE

Ackermansion. Pity the poor Ackerwoman— she ILLUSTRATED MAN. Puppet head by creator

never knew what was cooking! of ventri!oquist’s dummy in MAGIC.

FJA regarding Life Masks in his museum of imagi-Movie Memorabilia. Top, left to
right: Bela Lugosi, FJA, Boris Karloff. Middle, left to right: Tor Johnson, Don Post
Sr., Vincent Price. Bottom, left to right: Charles Laughton, John Carradine, Lon
Chaney, Jr. (Photo: Walter J. Daughtery)

WITH GLASSES Lon
Chaney wore as the
Mandarin in MR. WU, Fbrry
Ackerman points to one of
his most precious
possessions, a makeup kit
that beionged to The Man of
a Thousand Faces. Beneath
his hand, faise teeth worn
by Chaney in his ghoulish
role in LONDON AFTER
MIDNIGHT.

THE BEAVER HAT worn by Lon Chaney in LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT is in my hands as I
point to a portrait of Chaney as Quasimodo by Ron Cobb. Beneath the Hunchback of
Notre Dame is the original cover by Albert Nuetzell for the 4th issue of FMOF. The
publisher said on various occasions that this was the most popular cover we ever had. It
is now owned by FM fanatic Mike Yerkes.

^I^ling All Cars!

Operation Donovan: The Great Brain Robbery!

Friends, this issue is a month or more late because
someone stole my stuff!

I’m not talking about plagiarism, I’m talking
about actual outright physical theft. Theft of copy.
Theft of fotos.

It was 2 o’clock in the morning, Pacific Daylight
Time. My phone rang. I recognized Publi^er War-
ren’s voice on the other end of the line, 3000 miles
from Hollywood. I immediately sensed trouble for
it had to be 5 a.m. in New York and I know Jim
Warren well enough to know he doesn’t get up at
that time of the dawning for love, money or
monsters.

“Forry!” his voice cried with a note of great
disturbance. “I’m here in the office. Police are
swarming all over the place!” Police? It was too
early in either of our mornings and too costly at
transcontinental rates to be facetious and reply, “I
told you we’d be arrested if we ran my picture on
the cover and passed it off as Vincent Price.”

He continued: “Are you awake? Sit down. Get
a grip on yourself. The worst has happened.” I
thought he was going to tell me the magazine was
going to be discontinued— which is the worst thing
I (and 96 percent of you) could think of happening.

“Brace yourself,” he warned me. “Somebody
brolffi into our office. They ransacked the place.
Four squad cars are going up and down Madison
Avenue right now trying to spot them. They got
away with my briefcase— and in it was half the copy
for MONSTERS No. 15!”

“Pictures too?” I shrieked. “The stills?!” The
articles I could remember, the words could be
rewritten. . .but the fotos—!

“All the pictures for the robot story,” he began,
‘—gone.” I was sick. The only robot shots I had
from the serials PHANTOM EMPIRE and
UNDERSEA KINGDOM, saved thru the years
from the time when I was a kid. Probably the only
picture in America from the Swedish JOHNNY
VENGMAN AND THE BIG COMET. Gone! And
the irony of it: when the thief forced open the lock
on Jim Warren’s briefcase and discovered the con-
tents were “simply” manuscripts and monster pix,
he probably dumped them in the nearest trashcan.

May Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and
King Kong all catch up with him simultaneously.
At that I’m sure they’d be more merciful than our
disappointed & impatient readers & subscribers.

Which leaves me just space enough to comment
that, a number of opinions to the contrary, that was
Vincent Price on the cover of the last issue and not
me. I am frequently told that we are look-alikes
altho I have stood right next to the VIP (Very Im-
portant Price) himself in his own home and been
introduced to him and he didn’t react as tho he were
looking into a 3-dimensional mirror.

Still and all, when it comes time to cast the role
of the monster in the greatest shocker of them all—
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ACKER— I sup-
pose Price would be the logical man to play me.

Of course, a make-up artist would have to age
him about 50 years for the part.

Especially after the gray hairs I got from the gray
brain robbery.

UNHAPPY NEW YEAR
Jan. ’62, #15

OUR GREATEST
PAN LETTER

Dear Jerk: I would like you to
know what I think of your lousy,
stinken, rotten, weird, (censored)
book. I bought it once and I’m
afraid it was once to often. I vow
I will never never buy such a book
that has so much junk in it. It
doesn’t have 1 dam good thing in
it. You will probably ask me why
I bought this book, well it’s
because I thought it was going to
be a good book not just a lousy,
stinken, rotten, weird, darn book
with idiots that write it. I have just
finished reading your loused up
book and I think it is not worth 35
cents much less 20 cents. From
now on I’ll stick to books like
“Mad,” “Cracl«d.” Good Books.
I can draw better pictures than you
have in your (censored) book. I’m
just a teenager whose as mad as
(censored) for buying a (censored)
book like that. It was Oct. issue
No. 14. I think your book is just
a censored, (censored) book & I
double dare you to print this.

SANDRA Y.

YORKTOWN, SASK.,
CANADA

• \bu sure know a lot of cen-
sored words, for a teenager. And
a girl teen, at that! Sorry to have
a Canadian hate us so much.
\\bnder if youTl ever pick up our
magazine again to see we
accepted your challenge?

On the other hand (was a wart. Oops, wrong
quote. A wart to the wise is sufficient? No. . .here’s
what I was looking for. A letter in the same issue
headed Noble Defender):

I can’t find anything wrong with
your efforts. You deserve the
Nobel Prize for literature.

Ed Allen
Walnut Creek, Calif.

And John Johnson of Cleveland, Ohio, had some
interesting statistics for us:

By using the 137 letters printed to
date, I have found:

96% of the readers like FM
4% are against it
63% like old horror movies
37% like new horror movies

120,857 COPIES

For the firstime in #16, Mar. ’62, there appeared
(in microtype) the average sales figure for the pre-
ceeding 12 months. Reader Suzy Fish told us she
got an A+ on her English term paper and credited
“Forty’s writing.” Marianne Ruuth, Swedish film
correspondent of Hollywood, reported columnist
Sid Skolsky as saying that actress Joan CONQUEST
OF SPACE Shawlee’s 8-year-old son had never been
impressed by his mom’s movie career till she got
her picture in FMl

Awardee: Dracula Society’s First Radciiffe
(together with Boris Karloff); Four Hugos
(First, German, Italian and Japanese); author,
“Mr. Monster's Movie Gold,” “Lon of 1000
Faces!", “The Frankenscience Monster”,
"Famous Monsters Strike Back”, 190
filmonster magazines 1958-1962; film cameos
in “Queen of Blood”, “Schlock: The Banana
Monster”, “Dracula vs. Frankenstein”, “The
Howling”, “TheLuciferChest”, ISotherfilms;
SF, Fantasy and Horror Hall of Fame; Golden
Scroll, Academy of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror
Films and Academy's-Saturn trophy for
outstanding fantasy film critic. President in-
ternational fantasy and horror filmfest juries
Madrid and Sitges (Spain) Trieste (Italy).

FOR SALE from the
GARAGE MAHAL—

(Sonof TEri)

FOR SALE from my triplex garage in which you
couldn’t park a pogostick:

AMAZING FORRIES: More Than %u Dare to
Know about Efjay the Terrible, including
Contributions by Robert Bloch, Paul Lindeu,
Ray Bradbury, van Vogt, Irina... and the
famous Lon Chaney story “Letter to An Angel.”
O/P but still only $15.

METROPOLIS MONTAGE: All About Forry’s
Favorite Scientifilm (seen 77 times). Many Pix
plus Foldout Poster of the Robotrix. $3.50.

Most back issues FAMOUS MONSTERS.

LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT: Philip J.
Riley’s Award-Winning Recreation of the
Legendary Lost Lon Chaney Horror Classic.
Large format. Hardcover, over 175 pages,
INTRO by FJA, $25.

LON OF 1000 FACES!-FJA, Bloch, Bradbury,
1000 fotos, $15.

ACKERNEWSPAPER ACKOUNTS: Over
45,000 words about FJA. Xopied w/pix: $5.

Any item aut(^raphed or inscribed free of charge. Any order over $44, METROPOLIS
MONTAGE free. Postage & handling: AMAZING FORRIES, $1... LONDON
$1.50. . .METROPOLIS and NEWS XOPIES, 75 cents each. LON!, $1.50.

Checks or Money Orders to:

FORREST J AC KE RMAN
2495 Glendower Ave
Hollywood CA 90027

A Colorful Look Inside The

A 1/ A •* rv^ O A O i A n many famous objects can
/Aw Aw IIIIClIlwl \J I I ■ these fotos besides the infamou

An Ackermontage. (Don’t Mansion It!)

HORRORAMA

THE STORY OF BELA
LUGOSI AMBASSADOR
FROM TRANSYLVANIA.

Bela Blasko was born in Lugos, Hungary, on Oc-
tober 20, 1888 and grew up to be the principal .stake-
holder in the First International Blood Bank of
Transylvania.

Mr. Blasko was better known to the world as Bela
Lugosi.

And to the 4 corners of the earth the name Bela
Lugosi means— DRACULA!

THE THIRSTY COUNT

A real wolf, but not of the playboy type— the
slay boy. Here Lugosi portrays the wolf-man
leader of the animal-men in H.G. Wells’
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS.

“Ain’t I the cat’s whiskers?” asks Bela In THE
BLACK CAT. “And the first one who says no will
find out what I’m holding this knife for.”

Lugosi stood 6’!”, weighed 178 lbs. in his prime.

It took a lot of blood to keep him in shape, especially
considering he lost his shape every night. All that
flapping around. Night owls are generally noted for
their thirst; how much thirstier must a man get who
turns into a bat after dark.

Yes, Count Dracula was always on the wing at
night, so it was small wonder he was such a big
drinker. Of blood, that is. He rarely touched
anything stronger.

It takes energy, you know, to throw off a heavy
coffin lid instead of light bedsheets.

His favorite meal, of course, was Hungarian
Ghoulash.

FROM TRANSYLVANIA
TO PENNSYLVANIA

Lugosi made his first movie appearance in a
Hungarian film in 1914, went on to become a star
of German silent pictures, and then toured the
United States for 2 years, from Phoenix to
Philadelphia, playing Dracula on the stage. When
your editor was in Europe in 1951, he found Bela
Lugosi there, still going strong in the stage play in
London. Lugosi once told me he had played the role
over a thousand times. It was his great dream dur-
ing the closing years of his life to re-do the
black -& -white DRACULA which had played to
fainting-room-only crowds in 1931, this time in Ter-
ror Color, Scary-o-phonic sound and 3-dimensional
realism. Hollow laughter echoing from the blood-
flecked lips of his pale green face, he wanted to
soar right off the screen and over the audiences’
heads.

NIGHTS OF TERROR

A night at a theater with Bela Lugosi was always
guaranteed to he a NIGHT OF TERROR, and that
in fact was the title of one of his early films. In
this picture he portrayed a turban-topped Hindu
named Degar. A fiend who killed without warning
and left newspaper clippings on the bodies of his
victims had been alarmingly active around the
neighborhood of a Professor Reinhart and his
scientist-nephew. When the Professor meets an un-
timely death, it is revealed that 5 persons are to
benefit from his will— among them his servant,
Bela. The nephew conducts an experiment in which
he is to be buried alive for several hours, and while
in the coffin more people are mysteriously slain and
the dead professor’s ward kidnapped. Bela is pro-
perly menacing throughout.

Friday the 13th, a traditional night of terror,
served as a vehicle for Bela when he appeared op-
posite Boris Karloff in BLACK FRIDAY. This was
one of many pictures in which Lugosi and Karloff
were paired against each other. In this one Lugosi

Nina Foch faints in the arms of the werewoif as Beia wonders where he’ii get the chance to play
wolf in RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE.

played a master criminal. When Karloff, as Dr.
Ernest Sovac, transplants part of a criimnal’s brain,
in an emergency, into the head of a dying friend
named Prof. Kingsley, Lugosi must then menace the
professor in order to learn from the memory of the
criminal part of his brain where a large sum of
money belonging to Lugosi is hidden. This was the
motion picture in which, when Bela was called upon
in the script to be hypnotized, he was really hyp-
notized right on the set by the well-known Manly
P. Hall. He was told that he was locked in a clothes-
closet and in danger of suffocating if he didn’t bat-
ter down the door, and he gave one of the most
realistic performances of his life— almost too
realistic!

HYPTONIZED IN
REAL LIFE

The 5th and final Mrs. Lugosi, formerly Hope
Lininger, had for 20 years been fascinated by Bela
before she met and married him. During all that
time she wrote him fan letters. Oddly enough, the

DEVIL BAT, where you at? Bela goes seeking
the neighborhood bloodsucker.

same Manly P. Hall who hypnotized Lugosi in
BLACK FKiDAY performed the real life wedding
ceremony between him and Hope!

Lugosi turned down the original role of the
monster in FRANKENSTEIN because it wasn’t a
speaking part, but several sequels later in
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN
played the monster. . .and gave another of his
greatest characterizations in a Frankenstein film,
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, in which he played
the moronic Ygor who cheated the hangman’s noose
at the expense of a broken neck.

CHAMPION OF
THE UNDEAD

The word “zombie” was unknown on the screen
before Bela spelled it out with his fabulous success
in WHITE ZOMBIE. This picture really put Haiti
on the map, and zombies and Bela with it. Here
with his mesmeric black powers of voodoo he com-
manded the bodies of dead men whom he caused
to rise from their graves and do his bidding.

He played VOODOO MAN and HUMAN

DRACULA is headed (or throated) for the drink that’s so much more refreshing. He
always insists on asking for it by name: B-L-0-0>D.

Bela and John Carradine don’t look too happy over the RETURN OF THE APE MAN.

MONSTER, NIGHT MONSTER and captain of
the PHANTOM SHIP. He was in THE CORPSE
VANISHES and INTERNATIONAL HOUSE, and
once (in NINOTCHKA) he even played opposite
Greta Garbo!

NEVER FAR
FROM KARLOFF

Lugosi and Karloff saw a lot of each other— the
movie producers and public demand saw to that.
They met, each to out-menace the other, in THE
RAVEN and THE BLACK CAT. . .THE BODY
SNATCHERS. . .SON OF FRANKEN-
STEIN. . .BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT. . .THE IN-
VISIBLE RAY. . . and, if memory does not delude
your old editor (recollections sometimes get fuzzy
after 500 years and seeing thousands of monstrous
movies), Bela & Boris were together on the stage
in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. (Anyw^ I’m sure
they both played in it at one time or another. The
first reader who writes in and informs me I am
mistaken will be sent a shrunken head— /iw own . )

A dozen years after the success of WHITE ZOM-
BIE, he made ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY.

He was his Dracula-like self in MARK OF THE
VAMPIRE.

He was with the son of Lon Chaney, as well as
Claude (Invisible Man) Rains, in THE WOLF-
MAN; but many years before, in 1932 to be exact,
he was a wolf-man in the movie made from H. G.
Wells’ book, “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” Philip

Wyhe turned “Dr. Moreau” into a screenplay called
THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, and Charles
Laughton gave Bela Lugosi a bad time in it till Bela
got his band of beast-men together and paid
Laughton back. In this weird-science thriller Lugosi
was the product of speeded up evolution, a half-
man half-wolf as might happen after thousands of
years of Nature’s experimentation aided by science.

Count Dracula counts another victim.
Sort of a Transyivanian count-down.

“I’d break my neck
to get the latest copy
of FMOF”saysYgor,
and that’s just what
did happen to Bela
Lugosi in SON OF
FRANKENSTEIN.

MANY HAPPY RETURNS

Bela was always coming back. First he played
the mad scientist Roxor, who aimed at conquering
the world with his death-ray— this was in CHAN-
DU, THE MAGICIAN— then he was in THE
RETURN OF CHANDU. He was in THE
RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, too, and THE
RETURN OF THE APE MAN!

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE was one
of his great ones. “I am Dr. Mirakle,” he began
in his deep, thickly accented voice, “and I am not
a sideshow charlatan, so if you are looking for the
usual hocus-pocus, just go to the box-office and get
your money back.” But fans of Bela never went to
the box-office to get their money back.

He made OLD MOTHER RILEY MEETS THE
VAMPIRE in England but so far it has not been
released in this country. [Finally was.]

BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, with Tor Johnson,
was almost his last film. Just before that he was seen
in a mute role in THE BLACK SLEEP with Basil
Rathbone, Chaney Jr. , Carradine and Tor Johnson.

As a scientist and victim of an unorthodox ex-
periment, he plays a dual role in the little seen
GLEN OR GLENDA?

A year ago I saw a preview of GRAVE ROB-
BERS FROM OUTER SPACE, in which he has
a guest appearance. It has so far not been nationally
released. [Became PLAN 9.]

And enough unseen film on him remains that a
Bela Lugosi fan and movie producer plans to use
it in a picture called THE UNDEAD MASSES or
GHOULS OF THE MOON. [NOT DONE.]

Bela laigosi died on August 18, 1956. Your editor
attended his funeral and was among the hundred
people to pass by his coffin. He looked convinc-
ingly dead— but hadn’t he always? He is buried in
Holy Cross Cemetery in Inglewood— but is it per-
manent? Anyway, he has a younger son.

Will Bela Lugosi Jr. ever seek the mantle, bat-
wings, spider webs, hypnotic eyes and fan follow-
ing of his famous Father? There’s Lon Chaney Jr.
And John Barrymore’s son is doing well on stage,
screen and television.

Dracn/a yr..^’ You can never tell. •

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QUESTION: WHEN DID
“THE ANSWER MAN”
FIRST APPEAR IN FMOF ?

Answer: Eric Hoffman had his first letter in the
May ’62, 17th issue.

George W. Earley took us to task: “For the benefit
of those who really aren’t too sure just what a
monster is, let me quote Webster: ‘MONSTER—
any plant or animal of abnormal shape or structure,
as one greatly malformed or lacking some
parts. . .any imaginary creature part human and
part animal in form, as a centaur, or made up of
the parts of two different animals, as a unicorn.’
So you blew 8 pages that should have been spent
on real monsters when you included THE PIT &
THE PENDULUM in No. 14.” To which I replied:
“Sorry to disappoint you, but the majority of our
readers are obviously less finicky about what they
want to see in our magazine than the late Mr.
Webster. We won’t abridge his dictionary if he won’t
dictate to us a limited policy on our outlook of what
constitutes monsterish material.”

Edward Nassour, identifying himself as the son
of the producer of THE BEAST OF HOLLOW
MOUNTAIN, had a letter in #17.

Daniel O’Bannon (!) said he read 2 paragraphs
of my abridgment of “Who Goes There?” (basis
of THE THING) and I “managed to make it un-
readable and completely confus^.” John Clark, on
the other hand, found my version “skillfully con-
densed. Superb.”

Ah, yes, “The Lone Stranger” article, about the
FrankenGlenn monster. This brings back very
unpleasant memories. A young fan-about-town
volunteered if I ever needed someone to take pic-
tures of visiting celebrities he would be happy to
oblige. I didn’t really need his services as “me &
my brownie” were doing an adequate job as far as
the publisher was concerned but to give the fan a
kick out of seeing some pix of his in print I let him
take some now & then instead of myself. He was
so anxious to meet Glenn Strange that I invited him
along. He took a number of polaroids. There had
been no agreement beforehand that he would be

paid anything for them; I was thinking that the
privilege of meeting his favorite would be reward
enough. But a short while later he approached me
(so deferentially that he was almost bending over
backward and backing away as he broached the sub-
ject) and said, “"^u know, Forry, it costs me to take
polaroids, and I was kind of wondering if I could
be reimbursed?” For \hQfirstime I thought about
it and it seemed perfectly reasonable to me. “How
much do they cost?” I asked him. “50 cents a-
piece.” This was in 1962 and I was told at the time
this was high but the nextime I spoke to Warren on
the phone I explained the request and was happy
to hear him say, “Sure, let’s give him a buck
apiece.” I naturally thought the fan would be
delighted to be told he was going to get twice what

STRANGE

he asked for but in the meantime he had mentioned
to someone that he was having pictures published
in FMOF and whoever it was filled him full of a
lot of hot air: he suddenly regarded himself as a
$25-a-shot photographer (again, remember, near-
ly a quarter of a century ago when money really
meant something). He was not at all happy with
the publisher’s offer. I tried to explain to Wm as
diplomatically as possible that if, say, Boris Karloff
were to come to my house and Warren wanted the
occasion covered, either Jim would be satisfied with
ntyself doing it for nothing or, if he felt the celebrity
warranted it, if he was going to pay someone $25
a shot it would certainly be a weU-established pro-
fessional with half a dozen cameras, lenses, strobes,
an umbrella, an assistant— the works. (Like the time
Esquire took 1300 photos of me in a single after-
noon.) “As far as I know,” I said, “taking polaroids
is not your way of making a livelihood but just a
hobby.” But he was not mollified. When the photo
session with Strange was not published in the very
next number (because it was not news and, in the

publisher’s opinion, something more timely was
used) the fan started trying to foment trouble be-
tween Strange and me. It reached my ears that
Glenn was very upset because his interview had not
appeared “as promised” and had deputized the fan
to ask for his pictures back. I picked up the phone
and called Strange. “Are you mad at me?” “No,
no, not at all— I was just a little disappointed, after
telling all my friends that the article about me would
be in your latest issue, that it didn’t appear.” I ex-
plained to him that that was a publisher’s decision,
not an editor’s, something regrettably beyond my
control. “Do you want the pictures of you back?”
“Oh, no, of course not, if you intend to run the
article.”

But that wasn’t the end of it. The next thing I
knew I got an intimidating phone call from a Bever-
ly Hills lawyer: “A young man has just walked in-
to my office and told me a very disturbing story
about you.” “Story is the operative word,” I replied,
“Yon haven’t heard my side of the situation.” It
developed the fan wanted to sue me for 1000 (1962)
dollars! And that wasn’t all: my eyebrows flew off
when a mutual friend told me the fan wouldn’t rest
till he saw me in jail where I belonged!!!

Having digested die foregoing horror story, would
you beheve that the fan and I are the best of friends
today? Kids do crazy things, and as an adult I had
a reconciliation with him many years ago. I have
purposely not mentioned his name because it is im-
material who he is (was) and it would serve no
useful purpose to identify him. Not more than a
handful of old FMOF readers know who I’m talk-
ing about and I rely on their respecting my wishes
not to embarrass the party in question. He knows
I bear him no illwill and that’s all that’s
important. . .

Known names tod^ that appeared for the firstime:
David (animator) Allen, BUI (artist) Nelson, Bob
(filmaker) Greenbeig, Gary Svehla (fanzine colum-
nist while I was editor of Monsterland) and George
“Bloody Hair Hunks” Stover (horror film actor).

FORRY— just the name, just hearing the sound
FORRY sends a montage through my mind. It
begins with issue number four through the nearly
two hundred issues of FAMOUS MONSTERS . (I
started at issue four, but instantly sent for the first
three issues.) It set me on my current path
through life.

FORRY is a symbol. When I first met him
at Bob Michelucci’s FANTASY FILM
CELEBRITY CON, a goal in nry life was fulfill-
ed. To have my picture taken with FORRY. Oh
my God! I stared at that picture in my room
often— to see myself in that revered of places.
That spot where I have often seen monster after
celebrity standing, sitting, posing with FORRY.

Tom Savini

THE END “OF
FILMLAND”

With the 18th issue, July ’62, “of Filmland” dis^-
peared from the logo. Don’t ask me wtty, I don’t
know; I never did understand Warren’s decision.

The ftrfect Issue: The following editorial proves it:

THE PERFECT ISSUE. At last you are holding
in your hands the first error-free issue of FAMOUS
MONSTERS. Dates & information double-checked
& guaranteed, ^telling flawless. No flukes like (p.
32 of No. 16) die linotypist’s fin^r-fiimble that turned
the date on DANTE’S INFERNO from 1935 into
1953. No misspelling of Mr. Bloch’s name as Block.
No singular spelling of Mr. Melchior’s name as
Mel-choir.

In short, no mistakes.

I am reminded of the time I visited Tarzan’s creator,
the great Edgar Rice Burroughs, and in his home in
Tarzana, Calif. , he told me how time & again he
had been disqjpointed when, reading thru one of his
new books, he found a printer’s error. Finally he deter-
mined IK) longer to trust the job to others but to proof-
read his own work. Finally he ms presented the com-
pleted product. As he held in his hands the first bound
copy of the book he had carefully checked himself,
the edition he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt
to be free of error, a sniile played about his lips. But
it played itself out the moment he turned to Ae title
page. And a mighty Barsoomian oath escaped the
lips of Edgar Rice Burroughs as his eyes fell on his
own name on the title page: Edgar Rice Burrough!

Brent Wood, Mark Pruett, Steve Howard, Greg
Helfrich, Bob Barquist, Ed Budzilowicz, Tim Sta^,
Mike Carney, Dave Wolfram, Bob Latona, Don
Willis, Tom Roark, Ron Jones, Jeff Knok^, Dennis
Tbmer, Bob Rosen, Cliff Johnson, Mike Ernst, Keith
Rfiin, Jack Mocne, Tom Tlicl^ & R^y Cabana Jr.— I
hope all YOUR names have come thin unscathed &
spelled correctly for you were the readers with keen
memories who recc^nized the Mystery Photo in No.
16 as the famous grav^^d scene from THE
ADVENTURES OF TOM SAVYER ... not, as was
reported in No. 17, THE ADVENTURES OF
HUCKLEBERRY FINN! (That was just thrown in
to see how mary of you were aw^e & paying
attention.)

I’ve almost come to the conclusion that, even if
it were possible, it would be a mistake to put out
perfect issues— considering how much pleasure so
many of you derive from detecting errors! Maybe it
would be wise to dehberately introduce one error into
every issue so everyone can always feel superior?
WeU-

Maybe nexlime. But this issue is ny triun^h, my
eternal achievement, my proof to posterity t^ it is
possible to proofread & produce one Ifeifect Issue.

Forrrest K. Akermann

Oh, oh: “Dante’s Inferno!” “Are these the 50 woist
horror films ever made?” we asked. “Joe Dante Jr.,
who’s seen more than his diare of monster movies,
thinks so.” This was an article that got me in agm
caliente with the publisher and was to change the
course of future history for the rest of FMs
(un)natural life. I figured young Joe, then just Joe
Nobody, was the typical teenage monster movie fan
and as such would reflect the sentiments of the ma-
jority of our readers. But a number of the panned
pix were AIP flicks and the conpany was on tte veige
of rereleasing some of them. A:cording to Warren,
President James H. Nicholson had a flaming fit, feel-
ing the revivals would suffer at the bucks office due
to the putdowns in our pages. I never then or now
thought nty pubhcation wielded such influence with
the readers that a good review or a bad one could
significantly affect a film’s reception. But Warren got
on the horn with me, mad as a hornet with a ten
penity nail under its tail, and chewed me out royally.
“Don’t ever run a criticism of another picture!” he
raved. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you! If we pan
a picture the producers won’t cooperate with us on
their next release!” Two issues later I’ll tell you what
it took to mollify Nicholson. Either Roger Corman
didn’t remember Dante’s infernal remarks or he
forgave and forget for about 20 years later he let him
direct (and very successfully too) PIRANHA.

“Do you know what you’ve done for
me? You’ve added 10 years to my life,
Mr. Aclterman.’— Jdinity Eck(now 75),
the half-boy of FREAKS.

Firstimers: Bob ViUard, now a successful Horror-
wood photpgr^her and publicist; Dan Levitt, known
professionally as Gray Daniels, actor in DRACULA
VS. FRANKENSTEIN and THE JEKYLL-H’H^E
PORTFOLIO; Mike I^rry, now a noted British sci-
fi & fantasy anthologist; Dian Girard, now Dian
Crayne, a lady wfio’s sold some science fiction stories;
and Tory Tierney, who did the makeup of the monster
in DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN.

“A Letter We Dared Not Print” follows:

A LETTER WE DARED
NOT PRINT

I dare you to print this! I am
sending this to your Dead Letter
Dept, because I think your
magazine is DEAD! I know you
won’t print this because it criticizes
your magazine (just like a dozen or
more other critical, "daring” letters
reader O’Toole seems somehow to
have missed). First, I think it is
conplete chaos and I can only think
of one adequate word that dekribes
your magazine: RIDICULOUS!
You can’t print anything worth
reading. All you can do is print
those phoiy pictures. I don’t see
how you’ve gotten as many issues
as you have off the market, with
traki like that. And those readers
who write in musf be of little in-
telligence to read something of this
nature, since there is mostly pic-
tures. EvCTy time I see anothCT issue
I am exasperated. How gullible the
pubhc is! I think most of your ar-
ticles are dispensable. I alk) think
your entire magazine should be ef-
faced. SPACEMEN is ab-
dominable. I am 15 years old and
I like to read good literature.

BOB O’TOOLE
CHICAGO, ILL.

I am surprised that you have reached the
biblical count of three score and ten since it
has always occured to me that in your own
way you are the pied piper, a fantasy.

Alfiiough some people consider me an
expert in the field, having produced two
hundred pictures in this genre, I take off my
hat to you for the contribution you have
made to the fantasy screen and of couree the
great influence you exerted on all of us with
your publications.

I shall look forward to reading your auto-
biographical volume entitled Forrest J
Acl^rman: Famous Monster of Filmland and
trust that this will not be the culmination of
your efforts but only another milestone,
albeit a great one, in your career.

I know that if Jim Nicholson were still
with us he would join me in this sentiment.
Hopefully you learned as much from
American International Pictures as we
learned from you.

Best personal regards,

Samuel Z. Arkoff
President & Chairmar

DEAD-LETTER EDITION OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE FAMOUS MONSTERS CLUB

FM READER GROWS UP
TO PUBLISH BOOK BY
FORREST ACKERMAN!

FJAFM Publisher Bob Michelucci posed with cousin Nancy Battistini along with many of his
monsterous items in the 1960s. Nearly twenty years later Bob and Nancy (now McAdams) recreate
their eariy photo.

Although I don’t feel qualified to comment on
what effect Forry Ackerman and FAMOUS
MONSTERS has had on the current cinema
scene, I can say that Forry and his magazine had
quite an effect on me. While I would be at a loss
to recall what I learned in school I can still quote
passages from FAMOUS MONSTERS and
hardly a week goes by that I don’t think of ^rry
or that his name doesn’t pop up in a
conversation. You see, most everyone I know

knows Forry. We all got to know each other
because of his magazine.

I suspect that many of the people making
science fiction and horror movies today grew up
with FM. But that seems less important to me
than what Forry Ackerman is as a person. He’s
every bit as interesting as the “famous” people
he likes to talk about and I believe, in his own
right, he’s rather famous himself. VVTiich I think
is important to him. But more important is the

fact Forry Ackerman is a generous, warm and
caring individual who took the time to make
children feel special. I liked PLAYBOY when I
was a kid, too, but Hugh Hefner wouldn’t have
accepted a phone call from me or put me in the
pages of his magazine. How would I feel about
the publication of an autobiographical volume
on Forry? Sounds good to me. But you’ll never
capture the real Forry because he’s scattered all
over the place in the appreciative hearts of his
readers.

—Mark McGee
Duarte, CA

HOW MANY OF
THESE FANZINES
DO YOU REMEMBER?

THEY FOUND THE MISSING MONSTERS!

BLOCH HULL FJA

I have every issue of FM, Monster World, the
three paperbacks and the special issues put out
for the two FM Cons. Like many others, Forry
opened a world of imagination for me. I think
without realizing it— what always fascinated me
about horror films was the make up in them. It
is truly an art form, and by reading FM over
the years I became more aware of those true
“Heroes of Horror”. . .the make up artists. That’s
why I began my Witch’s Dungeon, as a tribute
to the make up artists & the actors that
such memorable Famous Monsters
Best wishes. . .

Cortlandt Hull

A “POE” POURRI
OF FM READERS!

Here are some photos of several readers of the first
fifty issues of FM. Where they were available, we
have supplied their names. If you recognize
yourself, we’d sure like to hear from you. Tell us
what you’re up to today and if possible send us a
recent photo. As a matter of fact, if there are any
past FM readers that can supply us with photos of
themselves as youngsters holding copies of FM and
current pix, we would like to print some in volume
two of FJA, FAMOUS MONSTER OF
FILMLAND.

WANTED!

More Readers like. . .

PEAP.LETTEB EOiTtON OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OP THE FAMOUS MOWSTBBS CLUl

CHUCK COLEMAN .lOSEPH MACCHIA

S. BITCOOI)

MARK STONE BECKY FALEN DAVID BERRY

ALLAN BRYANT

BORIS GRABNAR

VVAYNE LEE

Mickey Rooney’s son TIM, 1965

SECOND ANNUAL
SUMMER SPECIAL

In looking over this issue— Sep. ’62, #19 — I am
very pleased with it. I wish all of them could have
been thus ^—100 p^es — and this good. “The Lorre
Story,” “The Prehi^ric Story,” the Poe Preview
(TALES OF TERROR) and the Shocklist were out-
standing. There was a three page Fang Mail loaded
with meaningful and mirthful letters. Here are a few
excerpts:

“It isn’t only older people who are
really serious about their craving for
the macabre but we younger kids
too.’— Jack Robinson. “As Mr.

Bloch put it, ‘Horror is something
peculiar to the individual.’ ’—Roger
Salerno. “Bet Loser No. 99: 1 bet
you wouldn’t print diis.’— Ronnie R
■\bgel. “Loser No. 100: 1 don’t think
there’s any businessmen as smart as
you. Or for that fact, ar^ business
as good as yours. I was just trying
to figure out what kind of men you
are. The impression I get, that you
are very intelhgent men and that it’s
a shame that your talents aren’t put
to better use. Of course that same
old reason pops up again: money.

I was wondering how mai^ readers
you have that are over 21 and sane?

Not marty, hah! You fellows better
watch yourselfs [sic] or you’ll end
up in the nearest nut house. Or
maybe it’s just a front to malte it
look that you actually like that kind
of stuff, f honestly believe that the
latter is true. At least I hope so! I
imagine its [sic] aU right for kids
to read your magazine, but adults?

What do you think???? I am not
signmg n^ name because I am
nothing to you and n^ name would
be trivial. As a matter of record,

I am now 14 years of age (and not
a square).

[Trivial],

Phila, Penna.

[Editorial commit]: At last our
guilty secret is out: we are mad
geniuses who hate monsters, love
money. Our evil scheme: drive
everybody in the cotmtry [I over-
looked the city at the time] into
insane asylums! You see, we own
’em all and like to keep ’em full.
Wb would say more but a man
just arrived at our door with a
cabinet. Be right with you. Dr.
Cal^ari. . .” “Did you know the
State Dept, picked 2 fantasy films
to rqjresent die USA in the Russian
Culture Exchange for 1962? And
they are 3 WORLDS OF
GULLIVER and 7th VOYAGE OF
SINBAD.’— Mrs. Millie Pohl.
“Altho Lon Chaney Sr.’s acting m^
seem primitive to many people to-
d^, in our opinion he 'was (aixi still
is) one of the finest actors in
films.’— Dick Taylor & Don
Spragg. “Chaney will hve after we
have all turned to dust.’— Allan
Gibofsky. [And I’m sure Allan
didn’t mean Angel Dust.] ‘Announ-
cing the world’s first fanzine
dedicated to FJA, The Acker-
Bernie Bubnis Jr. “Robert
Bloch! — I only wish you would have
more of this man’s thoughts fillin g
your pages.’— George Kanin. “Hiss
& Hearse: It is discouraging to an
old customer lilte me to tell you that
you forgpt to print the price in
the 10-foot-snake ad.^—Ajmold H.
Green.

A WEIRD TO THE WISE

#20, Nov. ’62. Ah, yes. We open up and in place
of my usual editorial what do we find, a photo of
the publisher presenting to James H. Nicholson the
Famous Monsters Magazine Producer Award for the
horror hit of 1962, THE PIT AND THE PEN-

DULUM. This presentation was the sequel to the
“scandal” I told you about in #18, where Joe Dante’s
(in)famous list of horrible horror films caused such
a teatempestpot (that’s a tempest in a teapot) at AIR
According to ■\^h^en he had to pacify AIR for Dante’s
panning of some of their product by creating this
award for the co^aity and presenting it to their presi-
dent. Alas, all is ^o.

Charles R. Johnson sent us an ©cceptional letter so
long (6800 words) that could only publidi e»terpte
fiom it. “Wendayne Wahrman certainly would ap-
pear to be the leading female authority on imagi-
movies. Inside Ackerman a fine addMcm; when I read
it I feel as tho FJA is talking to me.”

Robert Woods had another long critical letter in
the issue. Among other opinions he held, “Mr. Bloch
is so critical that th^e wouldn’t be any more science-
fiction fantasy films if everyone else shared his opi-
nions. . .Vincat Rrice & Christopher Lee are the only
new, good horror actors today . . .1 would like to say
that horror movies are going into a new era.” Ol^y,
say away!

Here was a letter from Dan Jenkins, a faithful fan
of mine yet. During the production of this book he
came to visit me with his bride Eva from Thailand.

But it was the end of the honesty of Inside Aclter-
man because of the Inferno Incident. . .

THE GHOULDEN
AGE BEGINS

The Feb. ’63 issue, #21, according to a rubbeistamp
in one of my copies, appeared 3 d^s before Xmas
’62 and was a real Ack’s Mass present to try readers.
The magazine was doing so well that Warren decid-
ed to give another 100-page issue for 50 cents and
at the same time he gave me my head and let me
run with it (never mind the p&rrareto— that’s a mix-
ed metaphor).

Featured was a humungous mV/ustrated homage to
THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, no less than
forty-two pages in length'. “Son of Kong” was a
fascinating feature about master animator Ray Har-
lyhausen. “The Crystal Ball” revealed 100 imagi-

movies scheduled for production in 1963.

The name of R.W. surfaced for the firstime. He
would enter my life cm ny 60lh birthday, endear him-
self to me, be in line to inherit the Ackermansion
and all it contains, louse up his relationship with me,
disappear for a year or two, be given a second chance,
contact friends of mine aU over the world and create
a manuscript fiom their leqxjnses about me, and when
it (“The Enchanted Forrest”) was all set to be printed
at try expense (with rtyalties to go to R.W.), without
a word he walked off the job (when I was prepared
to give him a raise and a 6-month moratorium on
a 4-figure debt he owed me and still does) . . .Well,
that’s only the tip of the iceberg. More I slM refrain
from saying.

Fang Man contained the following ludicrous let-
ter, w&ch I titled Sees Red:

SEES RED

Who are you trying to kid? You
always talk about serious honor
movies. I’m afraid there Just isn’t
such an animal. If you tell your
readeis that Lon Chat^ movies ate
some sort of art, and that it takes
great talent to stagger around with
a hideous face and twisted figure,
then I really believe your magazine
could be Communist inspired.

BOB LONG
OMAHA 6, NEB.

* Communist inspired!!! Do you
hear that, Comrades Boeski,
Blochovitch, Amerikanski-
International Studios, Boris
Karioff (now there’s a suspicious
Russian-sounding name!— except
the venerable old actor to whom
it belongs took it as a stage
monicker long after he was bom
William Pratt in Ekigland), Peter
Lorrevitch, Hammer (and Sickle)
Films, and maty others too
humorous to mention! “Knock!
Knock!” “Who’s there?” “Soviet.”
“Sovirt who?” “When our friend
the Ifrankengrad monster & we
received this Irtter we were
hungry for laffe — Soviet it!”
Seiously— vieU, what can you say
seriously to such a fantastic sug-
gestion as this? Robert Bloch
denies he carries any card other
than the Red Ripper (Red Rip-
per? %ah: Jack of Hearts!) while
FJA freely confesses that he’s a
cantcarryii^ manbo-: “I always
have a joker up my sleeve!”

“Of Filmland” was back for some years to come.

TOMB MARCHES ON

Apr. ’63, #22, was another gem-packed 100-page
issue.

Jim Dan(osaunis)forth appeared with a tribute to
the late Willis (Kong) O’Brien. Our Istanbul cor-
respondent Giovanni Scognamillo introduced us to
his one-year-old daughter Sandra. Reader Robert
Rosen found “The Prehistoric Story’’ to be “fabulous.
The writing was adult, human & chumniy; in short,
Ackerman at his best.”

I am writing this resume of #22 from a copy once
owned by reader Daniel F. Cole. I can tell because
we had a coupon in it called Calling All Co-Editors,
inviting the readers to fill out a coupon with their
comments. Cole cooperated but never mailed in the
coupon! He listed as his Favorite Article “the 16-page
spread on DRACULA”; second best, “Meal with a

Monster” (Karloff interview) ly William F. Nolan
of LOGAN’S RUN fame. I did a big obituary on
Willis O’Brien and a major feature on Tod Brown-
ing, “Dean of the Horror Directors.” Martin Vamo
surfaced: before long he would script NIGHT OF
THE BLOOD BEAST.

This portion of the editorial I think you’ll find
amusing & educative:

A Fbrry Story for Batniks: In my hwiie recently,
a visiting filmonster fan mentioned that he had
read “some other” movie horror magazine before
FM came out. I challenged this with a very sim-
ile flat statement: there was no other before James
Whrren published FAMOUS MONSTERS. “Oh
yes there was!” he emphatically declared; “I
remanber buying it.” “'Vbu m^ hme bought some
other monster magazine before discovering FM,”
I said, “but as sure as I know that Lon Chaney
Shall Not Die and METROPOLIS is ray favorite
scientifilm, I can assnre you there was no snch
filmagazine before FM. We were inspired 1^ the
French Him revue that I have often mentioned,
the one that devoted a single issue to coverage of
sci-fl & horror on the screen; but we definitely
created & pioneered the first real monster mo-
tion picture periodical in history.”

StiU he peisisted, until at last, provoked, I made
him a proposition: “How would you like to own
my house? The 25JK)0 books, magazines, stills,
paintings, etc? I’ll bet the Ackermansion, plus all
the tont^ in the Garage Mahal, gainst that nice
new car you have parked in my driveway, that

there was no filmonsterzine on the market before
FAMOUS MONSTERS.

After we shook tentacles on the wager I pro-
ceeded to demonstrate to his satisfaction that the
short-lived Mbrid Fhmous Creatures, Screen Chills
(single issue), Monster Parade, Journai of
Fiankenstein (1), Mferewolves & Vampires (1) and
the scarceiy remembered 2-issue Monsters &
Thii^ had alt copied us, cranii^ out at late- dates.
(As a matter of record, we ha ve published more
issues of F^OUS MONSTERS than all the issues
of aU the imitators that have appeared in the past
5 years!)

So that’s the scoop on n^ auto coup(e). If you
think you see Vincert Price delivEJTi^ your fevorite
magazine to your newsstand in a graveyard gray
Ghoulsmobiie, run over & say-^TIelio, Forry”

The circulation figures indicated a slight decrease
in average annual readership to 117,160. (But I never
for a nanosecond believed the figures were accurate.)

I started a little feature that I liked a lot, Uncalm-
ing Attractions: “The forecast for the fanta-seas is:
high waves of excitement coming!” Little teasers like
movie trailers about forthcoming features in FM. But
Warren quickly canned it. His reason: fear that it
would tip our hand to competitors. He didn’t even
like me to credit contributots for fear our rivals (I
never considered we had any) would get to them and
woo them away. “"Ibu may be right, FJA, but I’m
boss.”

Forry Ackerman is the only one upon
whom the Freedom of Metropolis is
bestowed by the Creator of Metropolis
—Fritz Lang

WITH FRITZ (METROPOLIS/WOMAN IN THE MOON/M) LANG in the last years of his life
Ung IS seen with a pet toy monkey which he so loved that he took it to the grave with him.
From Elly Bloch, friend of his widow, Forry inherited the wife & son of Lang’s simian pet

INSIDE JAMES WARREN

Publisher’s Preface At a conservative estimate, I
have put more than 2 1/2 million copies of FAMOUS
MONSTERS into circulation during its first 5 years.
No other monster magazine can make that
statement— but they probably will ai^^way, consider-
ing their carelessness with tiie truth and inability to
accqjt the unpleasant (to them) fact that we were first
and did start the tiead. Also, it m^ have escaped
your attention, but none of the other monster
magazines has ever revealed its sales figures. We do,
annually & proudly. At last report we were selling
an average of 117,000 copies— an astonishing, 25,000
copies more than the top-selling science fiction
magazine. However, ego-bruising editor will not
let me get too swelled a head for he forces me to
say that “This is not to imply that on an absolute scale
of values we are better than Galaxy or Analog— we
are not even competing with R)hl or Can^)beU’s pro-
ducts and in fact are not even considered by the ma-
jority of s.f. fens to be in the s.f. field.” Nevertheless,
it is gratifying to me— and I am sure it is to the close
to hSf a million of you who are close to FM— that
my editor is helming a science-fantasy periodical
(quasi tho it may be and cwa^ as it undeniably is!)

with such an overwhelmingly popular appeal.

For better or blush, all the professional sci-fi
publishers have their circulation figures right out in
the open for comparison. I chedlenge the other
monsterzines to stack thdrs against mine but doubt
thQ' will rush to do so. Out on the west coast rec«itly,
in the presence of a reporter for Science-Fiction
Times, a usually reliable writer vdio has been a rather
regular contributor to one of our “rivals” admitted
that he was afraid their sales wae only a very dis^
pointingly low 40,000. This a shocking revela-
tion inde^ concerning a “con^ietitor” which was
conceived in the conceit that it would immediately
put all others in the shade, show FM its heels and
demonstrate how a cinema horror publication should
be handled, both editorially & visually. From the
beginning diey arrogated to themselves the title of
“World’s Greatest Monster Magazine” which is like
the lower half of every double bill that is always called
“Second Great Hit” r^ardless of its merit. Ilie name
without the game is not the same as an earned suc-
c^. We believe we’ve earned ours but find it more
telling to be told than to tell our own opinion.

James Warren

PUBLISHER

INSIDE GREENEST ACKERMAN

1 am emaald with mvy. My pos\^ mad publisher
has gone & grabbed most of the space where I
generally get to blow iry toupee. ^11, as long as
he doesn’t invade my domain more than once every
25 issues. . .

So: instead of answering at lengtii Crankensteins
who call me Communist or Dare John darers who
bid with boring r^nlarity for attention by swearing
they know I’ll never publish such a damning qiistle;
on this significant occasion I do want to utili^ the
little room left to ruminate about the fine helpmates
I’ve got acquainted with since FM began. At the
b^inning of 1958 I’d never heard of Dan Levitt, John
Brunas, Tim Adams, Jeff Knokey, I^er Claudius, Sam
Thorpe, Chas. Osborne, David Stidwertiiy, Chris Col-
der, Gary Dorst, Mark McGee, Claric WiUdnson, Ron

Waite and a couple others whom I’m morally cer-
tain I’ll give myself a Kong-sized kick in the latehen
for foigetting; I certainly want to eqjress ny af^irecia-
tion on this joyous anniversary for the unusual amount
of interest they have manifest in the magazine and
for their continuous kindnesses & contributions above
& beyond the call of duty.

Our Annual Weird Film Award is coming up—
and vse think 'wdwe picl$d a macabre movie that will
prove a wortly successor to last year’s PIT & THE
PENDULUM and will prove a popular choice when
our decision is announced.

Our 26th issue will be bettCT than this one; our
27th better than the 26th; #28— well, it might slip
a bit & revert to being merely sensational.

Seriouriy— have fun.

FORRY

100

“DARE” JOHN

June ’63, #23, and in response to a letter taking
me to task for an article on “Monster Kicks on Route
66” I replied at length:

(If FM were a newsmagazme like TIME, and
our publication railed TOMB covered the weekly
events of terrorvision & imagi-moviediKn, it might
be possible with mwe liequency & accuracy than
now to preview & review TV and theatrical
presentations. But when there is a bpse of p^haps
8 weeks between the time something is written &
something is read— sometimes as much as 3
months or more— it is a perpetual & perplexing
problem and, as in your case, vexing one, to keep
news from growing stale & to cope with the film
or video pi^uction on which we have stills &

studio information & nothing else to go on.
I^tur^y any publicity puff handed out by a mo-
tion picture ca or TV station is going to praise
the product & attempt to pei^de one in advance
that this particular production is on no account
to be missed, lb make matters worse, my life be-
ing as crowded & complicated as it is, I wasn’t
even sure if when the time came I’d get to see the
monster episode of “Route 66.” At the time I was
attending the 3\brld Science Fiction Convention in
Chicago and the word got around that Karloff,
Lorre & Chaney Jr. were in town acting in the
episode, there was quite a bit of excitement
generated among Robert Bloch, Jim Hollander,
Dave Keil, Bob Greenberg, Bill Obbagy, Don Glut
and other imagi-movie fans who heard about it.
It sounded good and, like the rest, I hoped for
the best. When an airmaU special d^v»y package
arrived from New 3hrk from my publEher, and
out popped pictures of Karloff as the FYunkens-
tein Monster for the flrstime in nearly a quarter
of a century. . . Lon Jr. recreating his own father’s

role as Quasimodo. . .etc I feel I would have

been derelict in my duty to monsterdom to have
withheld the fotos. They were of historical
significance inaiguably, even if you wish to
argue— and I would be inclined to agree with
you — that the 3 undeniably famous monsters were
treated infamously. Am I to understand, John,
that had you been editor of FM you would have

101

waited till you saw the pit^ram, even tho your
publisher Irad gone to considerable efforts to get
advance & exclusive fotos; and then, having seen
it & been disappointed, an issue later when it was
halfw^ foigotten that you didn’t consider the
telecast rated mention or else ignored its existence
altogether? In that case, can you imagine how
maiT^ letters you’d get taking you to task for an
‘Vibvious oversight?” Until you’ve digested about
KI^KK) letters from readers over the course of 5
years, I doubt you could have any conception,
want my opinion? After viewing the prc^ram, as
a fan, I thought it was bad. Cheap, heart-
breaking, blasphmious. Before I saw it, and after
the £act, as an editor, and un^ publishes ord£i:s,
I fed I did the right thing. Read^’ reactions rdn-
forced editorial judgment 7 to 1. “Lizard’s Leg
& Owlet’s Wii^” was presented as a horror spoof
& my pre-writeup of it was done chetongueek—
that’s tongue in cheek. It was no accident but a
carefully worked out last line capable of a double
interpretation.

Robert Bloch was back with “Calling Dr.
Cahgari,” Frankenstein of 1910 was uncovered;
Dracula, Harryhausen and Karloff were featured; and
you wouldn’t believe the number of fanzines &
fanclubs announced in the Haunt Ads section: The
Lon Chaney Fan Club, Horror fanzine, The Forry
Aci^rman Fan Club, Kaleidoscope fanzine, Horror
Lovers’ Fan Club, The Garden Ghouls Club, Space-
Monsters fanzine, The Fantasy Journal, Monster-
Times, Famous Creatures, Frankenstein club, Claw«
of Horror Club, Transylvanian Movie-Malters, Wit-
ches of Wichita, The Coffin Bangers, Classic Hor-
ror Qub, The Cyclops Qub (one to ke^ an ^e on).
The Monster Club (eventually a movie). The Inter-
national Bela Lugosi Qub, Karlcff-Ingosi-Chaney
Horror Soc’y, Cool Qiouls Qub, Curse fanzine. The
Loup-Garous, Dracula Fan Qub, Tlie Haunt^ (of
FM & SM), Monster Inc. Club, Fiends Inc. , Shock
Inc., Transylvania Ghouls, Lagoon Monsters, The
Gore Assn. , The Monsters of Detroit, Monsters Fan
Qub, Frankenstein Monster Qub and Monsters In-
ternational (mies-gnash-ml, that is).

Good news that Forry is at last going to
write his OWN story, dealing with his
incredible devotional contribution to fantasy,
horror and sci-fi in movies. Who has done
more? Who can tell it better? I want to read
that. Forry ’s generosity if anything eclipses
his reputation as a collector and instructor.

He not only keeps the flame of his love of
films alive but flames the passion and
enthusiasm of ever new generations by
producing the sort of magazine and work
that ignites the minds of young people. With
Forry, 70 years doesn’t signify his age as
much as the length of time in which he has
enjoyed his passion and found ways to share
it.

I’ve really only known Forry Ackerman a
short time, what, a mere 20 years of his
long and positive life. In that time I have
often been to his house; met many of his
fascinating friends who were drawn to him
for the same reason, good company, good
cheer and shared passion; we have traded
and helped each other. He is one of the few
people to whom I would entrust a rare
treasure because Forry doesn’t hoard things,
rather he immediately shares it with that
world out there who might never get to see
him and his collection in person, but
through his writings and his magazines, they
can get their first glimpse of otherwise lost
and forgotten pleasures. And he has
encouraged those who’ve come to him to go
out and do their own work, whether to write
about films or to make them, or create
make-ups as marvellous as those of his idol,
the man of a thousand faces. Forry has only
one face, benign, good-humoured, as
trusting as when he first started out, and
given the nature of some of the people who
have crossed his path but not always kept his
faith, that is a pretty remarkable trait of his
character.

The only thing I would quibble with is the
proposed title of his autobiog, FORREST J
ACKERMAN: THE FAMOUS
MONSTER— Forry ain’t no monster. He’s a
kid who loves to dress up. Long may he
continue and give new generations the benefit
of his knowledge and

Best regards,

Sincerely yours,

John C. Kobal

JOHN KOBAL is England’s premiere collector
of imagi-movie memorabilia and author of
numerous world-class volumes about mundane
motion pictures.

his treasures.

102

ilsnSisfBuaSaSPilBilsiBiBvBIBlSl!

DRACULA AWARD

The Count BracuUSDcietii

DEVOTED TO SERIOUS STUDY OF THE HORROR FILM AND GOTHIC LITERATURE

presents *

The \JvIrs. '^Ann ^dclijfe ^ WA R D

Forrest J Ackerman

FOR THE EDITORIAL EXCELLENCE OF
■ FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND" MAGAZINE

Dr. Donald A. Reed, then and... now

“How’s this for an award?” asked Bill Kennedy, better known as MR.
L.A., in his column in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, 31 Jan. ’63;
continuing, “Boris Karloff, Shock Theater & Forrest J Ackerman, editor
of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FTLMLAND magazine, have just won the
1962 Mrs. Ann Radcliffe Awards. It was voted by the Count Dracula Socie-
ty, a batch of LA devotees of the horror film.” Mrs. Radcliffe, the colum-
nist went on to explain, wrote in the early 19th century & is known as the
Mother of Gothic Horror Stories. Her most famous work: the macabre
novel, “The Mysteries of Udolpho.”

Thp following Sunday the gentlemen from the Dracula Society, namely
its president & secretaty, arrived at Mr. Ackerman’s home to make the
official presentation.

ALL-TIME FAVORITE

Aug. ’63, #24: this was 115 : all-time favorite issue.
Here’s the editorial:

etaoin shrdlu qwertyuiop?

N o, you have not picked up the Sanskrit
edition of FAMOUS MONSTERS by
mistake. After the fantastic number of foulups in
last issue’s typography, a roar of readers has writ-
ten in with but a single question, and in answer to
your mass blast let me say: “No, I am not
deliberately attempting to create a world record for
errors in a single issue— I am succeeding without
even trying!’’ Rather, I am receiving involuntary
“help.”

In FM No. 23, 1 had difficulty puzzling out the
mixed up paragraphs in the interview with Boris
Karloff, and I wrote it, so I can imagine how the
mi^laced sentences must have baffled many of you!
It is a pitiful sight to see a grown man cry; for-
tunately, I cast no reflection in the mirror, else I
couldn’t have borne to look at myself while I dried
my tears. My first thot after noting all the errors
in the issue was that a spy from a rival monster-
zine had got into the printing room & deliberately
sabotaged the issue. Because everything was pro-
perly spelled & correctly identified when it left me.
I know the difference between Karloff in the old
RAVEN and the new, and similar witches’ switches;
and I am probably one of the last persons you will
ever meet on this planet who got a straight “A” in
English thru 4 years of High School. I graduated
at a time when it still mattered whether one could
spell & knew how to punctuate properly. When you
encounter forms like nite, thru, tho, thot, foto
ca^og(ue) , dialog(ue) , etc. , in material written or
edited by me, it’s not because I’m not familiar with
the older, more formal forms, but because I have
long believed that individuals with intelligence &
imagination & foresight should be simplifying &
compacting the English language for a quarter of
a century or more but I can stiU spell plenipoten-
tiary or polymorphonucleated leucocyte without
consulting Webster, altho lately I will confess to
foigetting the exact vowel here & there in a

jawbreaker like supercallifedulisticespialladocious,
a word I don’t have occasion to use more than about
once every 10 years, and which in the second place
isn’t in the dictionary in the first place.

It is ironic that during the last World War (and
let’s hope it was the last) I edited & proofread an
Army newspaper & besides being a prize-winner,
it was about as perfect a product as you could find.
Because to date, due to geographical distances &
time considerations, it has been denied me to take
pride in presenting that same perfect product in the
pubhcation nearest & dearest to my heart. If I were
on the spot to check the “proofs” before the final
press run. I’m sure the goofs we’ve been plagued
with in the past would disappear like Claude Rains
in THE INVISIBLE MAN.

It seems like only yesterday (when in actuality
it was the day before) that Mark Twain said to me,
he said, “Lad’— he was only 5 years older than I
but he always called me lad— ‘Lad,” he said, “I got
no respect for a man who can’t spell a word more
than one way!” Mark sure would’ve had a heap o’
respect for our printers but I’m hoping he would
have pointed the finger of derision at one Steven
Jochsberger,

Remember the name, folks: Steven Jochsbeig;er.

Because after last issue’s debacle, my publisher
has made the decision to hire someone to be
specifically responsible for proofreading, caption
checking & that kind of thing. Steve’s got the job,
so from now on if you see THE BLOB spelled THE
BLOOB, or Peter Lorre’s name under a picture of
Elsa Lanchester, or a sentence that begins with a
question mark & ends with a comma, you’ll know
Steve was in a coma while proofreading & is go-
ing to be in a dilemma the firstime a reader writes
in to complain! Sneaky snorkel that I am, I have
deliberately spelled Steven’s name Stephen at one
place in this issue, just to make sure he’s awake &
paying attention & corrects it! If his own name ap-
pears misspelled, it’ll be no one’s fault but his own!

• • •

Did you hear that Alfred the Great is going to
make a sequel to THE BIRDS? It’s to be called
WING ALONG WITH HITCH. I also heard from
another little bird — I think it was a Blochbird—
that Gregory Peck is going South of the Border to
make a Mexican sequel to the film for which he
won an Academy Award. Title? TEQUILA
MOCKINGBIRD.

• • •

If you learned of a film made 60 years ago call-
ed, say, DRACULA’S TUSSLE, you’d admittedly
think it was a peculiar title, wouldn’t you, but would
there be any doubt in your mind but what it was
a film based on Bram Stoker’s celebrated vampire
novel? I mean, surely nobody would be making a
movie about Joe Dracula’s tussle or the big fight
Fred Dracula had. So, naturally, when our
Australian correspondent Chris Collier made the
amazing discovery that the American Mutoscope

104

Monstei^

OF FILMLAND

& Biograph Co. produced a picture in 1902 called
FRANKENSTEIN’S TRESTLE, he came to the
•understandable conclusion that, strange as it seem-
ed, this was the earliest known film about Mary
Shelley’s bizarre brainchild. It cost publisher War-
ren 20 bucks & took Atlanticoast authority Sam
Sherman & Pacificoast authority Walt Lee to check
out this title & discover to everyone’s dismay that
that Frankenstein was an ordinary town’s name!
Proving once again the perils of circumstantial
evidence. After all kinds of guesses as to what the
title was, such as FRANKENSTEIN’S TERROR,
FRANKENSTEIN’S TWIN, FRANKENSTEIN’S
TROUBLE, etc,, Jim Adams of Charlotte, North
Carolina, wired in the right word— trestle— and
Marc Antony Russell was the first to write it in.
I was all set to advance the theory that, 60 years
ago when someone originally wrote the word, it
was actually castle (which would make some sense)
and the handwriting had been misread & eopied
as trestle (which seemed to make no sense at all).
Then along came General Sherman & General Lee
(Sam & Walt, that is) with their consamed choo-
choo & ran right over my theory, trestle & all!

• • •

This summer several hundred of you will have
the opportunity to meet me in your own home.
When I told Robert Bloch what I planned to do,
he said, “Oh — an lU Will Tour!” Judge for yourself,
all the details are in this issue of FAMOUS
MONSTERS.

• • •

Next issue will be our 25 th, a momentous an-
niversary. It will be our greatest issue, bar none,
or my name isn’t

Forrest J Ackerman

There was an immensely long letter— it took up
3 pages of Fang Mail!- from Sam Thorpe, who,
as far as I know, was our first black reader, a very
muscular young man with a lot of muscle in his
missives. I’ve often wondered how he fared in life
and if by any chance he should read this, be it
known, Sam, that I’d be dehghted to hear from you.

Paul Linden first appeared in FM with (false
modesty aside) one of the most popular articles ever
published, “The Amazing Ackermonster,” billed on
the cover as A Forbidden Look Inside the House
of Ackerman. There was a 20-page coverage of
THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON. And an
astounding announcement known as PROJECT
6000 (it eventually grew to 8700) wherein the
fihnonster fans of the time learned of the possibility
of a visit in their own home of Efjay the Terrible
and the Ackerwoman. 1300 boys & girls wrote from
all over the USA to say that they would like to meet
us on our transcontinental roundtrip by car. More
of this anon.

PROJECT 6000 grew by 2700 miles before
it was thru. I signed this glossy foto for
fans I met all the way from Reno to New
York City and back again. Lon Chaney’s
star still shines on the sidewalk of
Hollywood Blvd.

105

JIM WARREN bet me the precocious lad looking
up at me wouldn’t know what the word
“retrospect” meant. He was always after me for
“writing above the heads” of my readers. He iost
that bet. (To my ieft, imagi-movie producer Sam
Sherman.) NYC gathering.

A MINI-MONSTERCON in the
Brobdinagian Burg known as the Big
Appie.

PHILADELPHIA FANS. I’m still in touch with
the black girl (woman? lady? I never know how
to address a member of the female sex
nowadays, for fear of unintentionally offending
a feminist. However, this friend of 20 years
knows I wouldn’t intentionally offend her.
Maybe I should just call her a monster fan.)

JAMES WARREN (left) & FJA listen to
expert opinion of critical reader at NYC
fan gathering.

SHAKING HANDS with a Wichita (I think)
fan. I met him again, all grown up, at a sci-
fi convention several years ago. . .and
bought some back issues of FMOF from
him!

Cutie Carol Wald.

106

(

A young Fredrick S. Clarke of CFQ.

KICKING THE
KONG AROUND

The subhead above will only ring a bell if you’re
of the early Cab Calloway generation and are
familiar with his song “Kicking the Gong Around.”
This issue — #25, Oct. ’63 — featured the first part
of a prodigious effort, “The Kong of Kongs” (Kong
actually means King in Norwegian). The
pyrotechnic feature of the issue was the short-fused
letter that caused me to explode. Missive follows:

SON OF DOUBTING
THOMAS

How can you prove you were the
first filmonster magazine? Another
horror movie magazine says you
only think you were first.

FRANK TAYLOR
DAYTON, OHIO

“THIS MAGAZINE looks good enough to
eat!”

The title Fang Mail was changed this issue to Post
Mortem. One of our great letters appeared, and
follows:

AN EXPERT SPEAKS
FROM EXPERIENCE

I have never written to any
magazine before. And I propose
this to be my one & only time to
do so, but— I have had it! For
some time now there has been
some sort of ravenous monster
gnawing at my vitals & seems the
only way I can destroy it is to get
it out of try system by writing you.

I do not claim to be an authority
on monster movies or any other
kind, in fact, and my association
& connection with movies of any
kind is practically unknown to
some people. I am a projectionist
& have been for nearly 40 years.

I believe my many years spent
in the projection booths of various
theaters diould qualify me to make
known my personal feelings con-
cerning any type of motion pic-
tures as I have run nearly every-
thing that ever came out on film
since the days of the old silent
flickers. I remember running the
original LOST WORLD in 1925
or ’26; silent, of course, in those
days. I also remember all too well
how one of the projector motors
broke down on that picture and I
had to crank the film thru for 3
matinees & nite shows! I well

107

remember the original DR.
JEKYLL & MR. HYDE, which
starred Fredric March, I believe,
& the original FRANKENSTEIN
& MUMMY series starring Boris
Karloff & Lon Chaney Jr. To this
day those 2 have remained my
favorites. Only a couple years ago
I was fortunate enough to obtain
a print of FRANKENSTEIN &
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN,
also THE MUMMY & THE
MUMMY’S CURSE, to run for
a Halloween show & not 1 of over
400 patrons, teenagers & adults
alike, left before all 4 features
were finished. The older adults all
said they enjoyed seeing these old
horror movies over again & the
teenagers said they didn’t believe
they made such good movies in
those days & that it was like be-
ing taken back into the time of
their parents youth. I only recent-
ly ran, to name a few, MOTHRA,
MAGIC SWORD, THE
DEMON, the new color version of
THE MUMMY, 13 GHOSTS,
THE TINGLER, PREMATURE
BURIAL & TALES OF TER-
ROR, also many more of recent
vintage, all good in their own
right, but to me none could equal
the old originals like THE LOST
WORLD, KING KONG,
FRANKENSTEIN or THE
MUMMY. I^rhaps for sentimen-
tal reasons on my part, as a
reminder of my early years in this
business, but I have heard many
people say they have seen nearly
all the horror films thruout the
years but none shocked them or
just plain scared the heck out of
them like Boris Karloff when he
first appeared on the screen in
FRANKENSTEIN or as THE
MUMMY in the early 30s. Now
my main gripe is this; many
parents refuse to let their children
to go see some horror movies
because it might give them
nitemares or bad dreams. In some
cases that is true & some children
are oversensitive to such things &
should not be allowed to see tlnn^
on the movie scren that will
disturb them emotionally. But at
the same time the kids stay home
& watch as bad or worse on TV
while their parents go to the

nearest moyie or the farthest one
to see the same monsters that they
won’t allow their kids to see!
Perhaps the parents think the kids
are safer at home with their TV
monsters & bloodshed than they
are at the theater, sitting beside
their parents. On the other hand
some of these same parents will
not only permit but insist on the
kids going to see such unques-
tionably adult pictures as GOD’S
LITTLE ACRE, FROM THE
TERRACE & many more in that
category ^d I refer to one here I
had the displeasure to run recent-
ly at the drive-in, POOR WHITE
TRASH. During the 4 days I ran
it we caught at least 12 cars with
kids from 8 to 15 concealed in the
trunk by their parents so they
could sneak the kids in to see it
& the same people would not let
the kids come to see THE 7th
VOYAGE OF SINBAD only a few
days later! Because, they said,
SINBAD was too fantastic &
unbelievable for small minds. I
think the “small minds” are in the
heads of the parents & not the
kids. I also remember a case only
a few years ago in a medium siz-
ed city in this state where I was
projectionist, a great many people
in the community would not allow
their children to see THE 10
COMMANDMENTS because, as
they put it, it was not exactly
according to their religion. Neither
did they allow them to see THE
FLY but these same people & then-
kids came in from all directions
to see certain other films of an
“adult” nature that I was asham-
ed to run & I’ve got hardened to
anything on film long years ago.
In conclusion, I try to explain
monsters to young kids who are
afraid to see than this way: I show
them a piece of film with the
creature on it, which always
fascinates them, & then tell them,
“That man dressed up in that
Halloween suit gets paid big
money for that & he has little ki(£
of his own at home like you. He
loves them & they are not afraid
of their daddy & when you grow
up maybe you can go to
Hollywood & dress up like a
monster too & be in the movies

like he is.” That usually does it.
Their fear of monsters turns into
a fascination for them. In most
cases the parents’ decision of what
the kids should or should not see
is right & I uphold that decision
100%. I have a teenage son & a
daughter under 6 of my own and
I believe I am in a position to know
what they should see & what they
should not and I enforce that rul-
ing. My young daughter has never
acquired a fear of any of the
monstrosities she sees on the
screen & loves to watch them.
Many nites she sits on a chair in
the projection booth for hours &
watches with great interest such
pictures as MOTHRA, 13
GHOSTS, 2-HEADED GIANTS
or whatever is out there & she
doesn’t come home & have
nitemares over it. If more parents
would only take time to explain
what these monsters are & give the
kids a chance to see for
themselves. I predict if you publish
all or any part of this letter it will
result in a violent uprising among
certain of your readers & a vicious
verbal retaliatiion against me & my
beliefs & that is their privilege &
constitutional right. But to all those
who do I suggest they resign from
the human race. But on 2d thot
they can’t resign from something
they never belonged to. In all my
years as a projectionist I have
many times been blamed, cussed
& even threatened for something
somebody saw on the screen that
they didn’t like. I don’t make the
movies, I only show them as they
were made, & I am not allowed
to cut out one scene — that is the
job of the censors. Well, that’s my
story, be it good or bad— I hope
it is worthy of publishing in your
fine magazine for all to see.

MR. C.E. LEWIS
MEADE, KANS.

• Our audience may not be
comprised entirely of young folk
but they certainly are the ar-
ticulate majority & it is a treat
to hear from a mature in-
dividual for a change, especial-
ly a parent with such an insight
into children & an empathy for
adolescents. We have refrained

108

from publishing your complete
address, not to protect you from
verbal brickbats by ^ngbats,
but for your own safety from
hundreds of thousands of
readers who undoubtedly would
like to be adopted by such an
understanding papa who would
let them sit in the projection
booth & watch 4 monster movies
free! Wheel Come to think of it,
would you consider adopting a
4%year-old child?-FJA. PS: We
would appreciate a foto of you
& your daughter for publication.

More dubs announced: Graveyard Monsters, The
Monster Admirers, Chris Lee Qub, Bela Lugosi Fan
Club, Monsters, Cursed Coffin Club, Bloody
Creatures Inc., United Monsters’ Club; The Boris,
Bela, Lon Jr. Fan Club; The Monument Movie
Club, The Nighthawks, Horror Inc. , Mad Scientists.

More fanzines! Dimensions Beyond; Werewolves,
Vampires & Frankensteins; The Monster Journal,
Gore Creatures, Kaleidoscope.

In 1912 Harry Benham played DR. JEKYLL &
MR. HYDE. In this issue we showed him at 80.

HARPY NEW YEAR

Jan. ’64, #26, and another editorial I found in-
teresting to reread:

WHERE, indeed is Forry. It seems to me that,
nite & day since I rashiy volunteered to drive
from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, and hack,
ringing doorbells, I have done nothing but 25
hours a day sit at that desk— ignoring my own
doorbell (and phone bell), to the detriment of
my local popularity & professional business
opportunities— writing, writing, writing this
issue of FM and #8 of SM and contributing to
SCREEN THRILLS ILLUSTRATED. . .all so

109

that I could be away from desk for 6 weeks
to go riding, riding, riding ’ronnd the country
at the wheel of a car.

Special thanks to Wendayne Wahrman for
getting all the invitations in order, burning the
midnite oil midnite after midnite while
calculating distances & times, masterminding
the master route.

1,195 readers of FM had indicated a desire to
meet me, en route, up to the time of departure.
Last minute invitations were still mounting up
at the rate of about 15 per mail delivery.

1 am gratified, from my fan mail, that the
majority of you have ratified the policy of FM
as a personality publication and that, buyin’
large, you buy the personality of Ye Ed. But in
a bat^ of 37B “like” letters, la^ week, I suddenly
hit one that stopped me stone cold dead in de
casket. And it was from a girl, to boot; not that
I usnally approve of booting girls. Said she (and
she shall be nameless, to protect her from being
torn limb from tree by the We Back Ack
contingency) — said she: “The one thing I like
about other monster magazines is that I don’t
eternally have to read about Ackerman.” That
really rocked me back on my reels, till I stopped
to realize that they crucified Christ, shot
Lincoln, some people don’t like Bloch and even
Ray Bradbury (whose imagination is currently
being employed by the United States Government
to the tune of $17 million)— even Ray Bradbury
to this day occasionally gets a rejection slip. I
dare say no man in all of recorded history was
ever totally nniversally liked— so why should it
surprise me that I’m no exception? I know all
my life I’ve heard Will Rogers qnoted as having
said that he never met a man he didn’t like; but,
then, he never met Hitler or Mussolini or
Eichmann. Also, all my life, I’ve been waiting
to meet someone who knew Rogers personally,
absolutely convinced that they would confess to
me that they once heard amiable Will mention
somebody he couldn’t stand for sour apples.

Well, so much for that subject. I’m sorry the
Forry egoboo in these pages draws an ego boo
from the lady in question, but there’s one thing
for certain: if it’s a lack of Ack that you prefer
in conjunction with your fihnonsterism, you may
be sure you’ll find NO Ackerman in
overwhelming quantities in Brand X monster
magazine.

Also brands Y & Z.

* * =i!

I’ve been told, by someone who unfortunately
forgot where he saw it, that FM got a nice plug
in a teenage mag that was probably on sale
during May & June and had an on-sale date of
July on it. I’d be awfully grateful to anyone who
remembers and who would write to me do the
Philadelphia address; or, better still, if possible,
send the page from magazine. As a matter of

fact. I’ll make that a standing request; anyone
seeing any publicity of FM of FJA in a newspaper
or national magazine, I’d be extremely
appreciative if you’d mail it to me c/o our
publication office.

* * *

Finally, will you foi^ive me that, just this once,
the actual news in the news dept, is extremely
skimpy and it’s mostly pictures? I just finally
fiatly ran out of time to do any more work
before leaving for the tour.

Back in 60 days,
Forry

Then there was this letter from Tom Reamy, who,
if I recall correctly, started distinguishing himself
as a pro sf writer, then slumped over his typewriter
prematurely and died.

DEATH & TEXAS
I have watched FAMOUS
MONSTERS grow & mature thru
23 issues. I can’t honestly say it has
improved— you’re still doing the
same things you were doing in No.

1— but it has definitely matured.

The only other monster-movie
mag which even approaches FM
is Fantastic Monsters of the Films,
and only because it’s such a close
imitation. So close, in fact, you
should have grounds for suit. The
conclusion of the Dracula article
& the same on Harryhausen were
fascinating. I am an avid Har-
ryhausen fan— I saw JASON &

THE ARGONAUTS three times
in 2 days. Ray has reached a stage
of perfection that will be difficult
to improve. His stop-motion work
hasn’t improved— it’s been perfect
for some time, when the budget
allowed— but the matte work is for
the firstime almost flawless.
However, THE 7th VOYAGE OF
SINBAD remains his best film
even if the special fx weren’t up
to JASON. Harryhausen’s black &
white films— excepting MIGHTY
JOE YOUNG— were pretty dreary
affairs when Ray wasn’t at work.
GULLIVER, MYSTERIOUS
ISLAND and JASON have im-
proved somewhat but are still
somewhat hollow & listless. Ray
needs a director who can keep the
live portion of the film as exciting
& fascinating as the effects scenes.

I wish to contribute a few bits of
information of which you do not

110

seem to be aware. ZEX, which
you refer to occasionally, was
released in 1960 as THE ELEC-
TRONIC MONSTER, a miser-
able adaptation by Chas. Eric
Maine of his pretty bad novel
“The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep.”
THE PLANET OF EXTIN-
GUISHING MEN has been
released as BATTLE OF THE
WORLDS. Was the film you listed
as DEATH COMES FROM
SPACE released as FIRST
SPACESHIP ON VENUS? (No, it
was a dubbed Itatian film releas-
ed under practically the same ti-
tle, DEATH COMES FROM
OUTER SPACE: whereas
FIRST SPACESHIP ON
VENUS was an E. German-
Polish collaboration known in
Europe as THE SILENT STAR
and SPACESHIP VENUS DOES
NOT REPLY.) Is Pal ever going
to start THE CIRCUS OF DR.
LAO? (Now known as THE 7
FACES OF DR. LAO, Geo. Pal
has phoned inviting me onto the
set.) Has the Austrian film APR IT.
1, 2000 ever been released in the
US? (Yes, I saw it several years
ago; fairly amusing, as I recall.)
I actually hope Bert Gordon has
decided against filming METRO-
POLIS unless he has suddenly ac-
quired some talent. I know he’s a
friend of the editor’s and has the
best intentions in the world but can
you honestly say he’s ever made a
good picture? THE MAGIC
SWORD was his best and it was
pretty lethargic. METROPOLIS
would have to be in the FORBID-
DEN PLANET class for special
fx and THE INNOCENTS class
for directing & acting. Gordon just
hasn’t got it. Well, I’ve passed on
my meager information, asked my
questions, insulted the only pro-
ducer in Hollywood really devoted
to science fiction & fantasy film-
ing and generally got a good taste
of my foot.

TOM REAMY
DALLAS, TEXAS

And there were 2 more letters
I think worth reprising:

SERIOUSLY SPEAKING

I am going to try to put all the

compliments, criticisms, opinions
& questions I have formulated thru
the years, as I read FM, into this
letter. First, the compliments. Your
magazine has an aura about it that
can be summed up in one word:
quality. The fotos, the articles,
even the print itself has a quality
unlike some of your so-called
competition. Two of them use
some reproducing process for their
fotos that gives fiiem a cheap ap-
pearance, exactly lite those found
in newspapers, composed of those
millions of irritating little dots.
Another prints whole pages in an-
noying colore. Your reviews of the
latest films are very good and
make one wet his lips for more.
“Inside Darkest Acula” is ex-
cellent, to s£^ the least. Finally, so-
meone has the nerve to give credit
where due & “thumbs down” to
the lemons. I used to feel that hor-
ror magazines had to praise the
rubbish ground out of Hollywood
to keep in good standing with the
studios until I found your “Dante’s
Inferno” article. Your “Menace,
Anyone?” by Bloch was truly ex-
cellent, starting a badly needed
series of “think-pieces.” Issue No.
11 was your best yet, in my opi-
nion. Not an inch wasted. Fbe ar-
ticle and Jekyll & Hyde history
XLNT. Your biographies are
delightfully long & crammed with
information. Take for example
your Lon Chaney Jr. bio— it was
8 pages long while a competitor
could only fit 1/2 that into their
mag with exactly 2 paragraphs of
written material! Your transforma-
tion into a 100-page giant is very
satisfying. Keep filling issues with
first-rate articles like your BRIDE
OF FRANKENSTEIN triumph in •
No. 21. Well, enuf of the
compliments— on to the criticisms:
What happened to the reported (in
No. 8) “ftirther info & fotos” on
SPACE INVASION OF LAP-
PLAND? (Pic was filially releas-
ed as INVASION OF THE
ANIMAL PEOPLE. Set of ad-
vance fotos we had from it,
direct from Sweden, was lost in
the mail.) What happened to the
second foto from 7 FOOTPRINTS
TO SATAN in your Hidden Hor-
rors dept. , issue No. 23? (What I

said about the picture turned
out to be so long — longer than
estimated — that there wasn’t
room to run the 2d foto. No one
in New York realized this until
it was too late to change the
reference from “2” to a single
foto). What happened to the foto
of the H-MAN that was supposed
to be found on p. 73 of issue No.
22? (I don’t know! I mailed it to
New York, marked for publica-
tion on that page, but maybe
some Thief of Bagdad-on-the-
Hudson wandered into oiu' office
and swiped it before it got
printed there, and a substitution
had to be made.) A few of your
articles were slightly terrible.
Nobody can be perfect. I think
you have received enuf letters pan-
ning your “Mad Labs” & “Mad
Robots” to give you an idea of
what I thot of them. (Maybe we
should publish THE BUST OF
FAMOUS MONSTERS, a one-
shot printing “Mad Labs,”
“Mad Robs,” “Hollywood’s Hot-
test Horrors,” “Where on
Earth?” & Other Bombs — plus
500 pages of ads— selling at $5
a copy, so everybody can ignore
it & be grateful to us for all the
money we’ve saved them!) In No.
19 you got bogged down when you
wasted 10 pages with fotos of “5
& 10 cent store” Halloween masks
in “Monster in the Basement.”
Now for some of my opinions. I
am very glad to see you have cut
out the sickening puns & replac-
ed them with facts & the
seriousness this medium deserves.
Your competition, except for one,
plays these films for laffs, a most
disgusting situation. I hope you
will leave the robots & Flash Gor-
dons for other mags. They don’t
belong with monsters; they tend to
destroy the whole atmosphere you
are supposed to be putting across.
That one mag I mentioned doesn’t
play these films for laffs has more
of a Gothic atmosphere about it but
lacks the quality you possess. Sug-
gestion for a Filmbook: HORROR
OF DRACULA. To those who
have seen this film , th^ will know
the admiration that I am trying to
put into these words. Horror was
built up psychologically as you an-

111

ticipated, yet feared, what would
occur at any minute. The attemp-
ted premature hurial of the helpless
woman by the hideous Count
Dracula; the driving of the stake
thru the heart of the writhing &
screaming vampire-bride; the
phantom hearse thundering thru
the misty forests; and the grip-
ping climax when Dr. Van Helsing
(Peter Cushing) brings the Count
to his just end, all formed an ab-
solute atmosphere of nameless ter-
ror & fear never to be forgotten.
Christopher Lee is, in my opinion,
a far better Count Dracula than
even the old master, Bela Lugosi.

CHRIS FELLNER
OSBORNVILLE, NJ

MORON MR. ACKERMAN;
OH— NO— MORE ON MR.
ACKERMAN

The wait for the giant article on
Kong will be sheer torture. I think
KK is the finest film, monster or
otherwise, ever made. CLEOPA-
TRA is a “B-flick” alongside it!
This ridiculous piece of nonsense
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA is
typical of movie makers today
endeavoring to capitalize on the
beauty of the classics of the past.
Today some tiny little company
slaps together a trashy bit of
mediocrity in a couple of days,
sticks a flashy title on it, and sits
back & counts the returns while
the unsuspecting public eats it up
readily. It has been so with
FRANKENSTEIN & DRACU-
LA. Classics of the real era of
movie-making, they have been
capitalized upon by ridiculous
vehicles of celluloid such as
TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN,
FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGH-
TER, BLOOD OF DRACULA,
etc. And now with Kong. “What’s
in a name?” It’s all in a name!
If this new picture was entitled
GODZILLA VS. A GIANT
GORILLA it, I will venture to say,
would not gross 1/2 the receipts it
would with the name of King
Kong appUed. I sincerely hope this
will be the last film that will use
the fine name of King Kong to fool
the pubhc and make the producers’
wallets fatter. (My sentiments ex-
actly. After the preview I

remarked, “I’m sure we
wouldn’t all object so much if
they’d just called the picture
GODZILLA VS. JAPANESE
GORILLA, but the man in the
monkey suit wasn’t tour’ Kong,
not by a missing model’s worth
& a master animator’s warmth.”

Obie’s widow was near to tears
that her worst fears would be
realized at the preview &
couldn’t bring herself to attend;
similarly, Monty Schoedsack
couldn’t subject bimself to
witnessing the sacrilege. “Kong”
looked clownish, floating thru
the air supported by balloons.

For the records, however, I will
agree with the majority that the
gaint octopus was tremendous,
the unbiiled, unanticipated hi-
lite of the picture— FJA) Let no
one tell you that you do not im-
prove with age for each issue
seems a crowning success over its
already wonderful predecessor.

LARRY RICHARDSON
BURLINGTON, NC.

In the You Axed For It dept. I note one Perdita
Sedepi (theoretically) asked to see a shot of Agnes
Moorehead as the 100-year-old woman in THE
LOST MOMENT. Perdita Sedepi means Lost CDP
in Esperanto. CDP was Celeste DePinto, a sci-fi
fanne I lost track of years ago.

112

Some interesting fotos in this installment of The
Amazing Ackermonster: me at 13, on the sidewalks
of New "ferk in my 1939 fiuuristicostume, Wendayne
& I in Heidelberg in 1951, myself as sinister Staff
Sergeant “Ack-Ack” (the terror of World War 2)
and a pencil sketch (one of the few times I ever set
my hand to drawing) done Memorial Day 1934 of
Fredric March as Prince Sirki. TYiming the page,
there are 3 youthful monskerteers: Ray Bradbury,
FJA & Ray Harryhausen. And a historic foto of me
receiving the first Hugo from the hands of a
youthful Isaac Asimov.

CASTLE OF

FRANKENSTEIN REVISITED
Concluding the “Tussle of
Frankenstein,” perhaps the world’s
first serialized answer to a letter,
touched off by “Son of Doubting
Thomas” last issue. On p. 51 of the
3d issue of Castle of Frankenstein,
the editor states: “If anything
started the horror-movie magazine
idea, thanks are due somewhat to
a number of European movie
periodicals which, in a period of
ten years, devoted certain issues
mostly or entirely to covering
filmic fantasy in general.” COF’s
editor should know — in the first
issue of his Journal cf Frankenstein ,
direct lineal predecessor of Cas-
tle of same, he reprinted a portion
of Peter John Dyer’s famous “Pat-
terns of Horror” series. . .the easy
way, by simply rephotographing
the original pages. He did not
acknowledge that those original
pages came from the British
publication “Films & Filming.”
He ran part 1, “All Manner of
Fantasies,” from the equally ex-
cellent pt. 2, “Some Nights of
Horror.” (COF’s loss was FM’s
gain). Note, in passing, that War-
ren’s first issue was out in late Jan.
or early Feb. ’58, publMier Beck’s'
first filmonsterzine did not appear
until late Aug. ’59 or early Sept.
FM obviously could not have been
inspired, at the beginning of 1958,
by an article in a British magazine
that didn’t come out till half a year
later but it is our thot that Journal
of Frank just might have been in-
spired by our trail-blazing. In-
cidentally, there was nothing fun-
ny, punny, kookie or farout about
the treatment of Imagi-movies in
the Films & Filming horror ar-

ticles of any foreign filmagazines
of which we are aware; we
wonder, then, when & where
publisher Beck got notions for
nonsense like “The Return of the
Son of the Bride of Frankenstein,”
“Operating Table of Contents,”
“Ghostal Mail,” “Carrier Bat,”
“Haunted Housekeeping Seal of
Approval,” “DraCola” (the paws
that refreshes), etc? All sound
vaguely familiar, reminiscent of
the early days of FM? We wonder
what foreign filmags inspired that
sort of humor? Continuing his
argument that FM didn’t start
something. Beck contends: “Go-
ing back even further, we have a
number of one-shot horror-movie
mag attempts evident from 1939
thru the early Forties. In fact, in
a number of instances, nationally
known movie publications like
SCREEN STORIES have spent, at
times, almost entire issues cover-
ing the fantasy-horror film scene.”
In the early 40s, I was working in
the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts & Sciences (proof?— you’ll
find my name listed on the Staff
of the Players Directories in the
years just prior to World War 2)
and among other jobs I had much
to do with the Still & Magazine
Dept.— the Library — of the
Academy. Somehow, I must have
missed out on that spate of great
one-shot horror-movie mags that
now, nearly a quarter of a century
too late, I learn about! I could
scarcely have been inspired by
something I never knew of before;
I certainly am dejected to realize
that what Wollheim, Moskowitz,
Richardson, van Vogt, Bradbury,
Pohi, Barrett— everybody who has
ever seen it & compared it with
their own or others— what they
have considered to be the greatest
collection of science-fantasy on the
face of the earth, is significantly
lacking common items well known
to Cal Beck. I have here, within
easy reach, a couple dozen issues
in the 30s & 40s of mundane
filmags such as “Screen Stories,”
“Movie Story” & “Screen
Romances,” purchased deliberately
because they feature such fic-
tionizations as “The Mad Ghoul,”
“The Mummy’s Ghost,” “I

113

Walked with a Zombie,” “The Pic-
ture of Dorian Gray,” etc., but
these cannot be the publications to
which Cal refers because in no
case is the fantastic or horror ele-
ment dominant. Take “Screen
Stories” with the 5500 word ver-
sion of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG:
it has only 3 stills, not one of
which even shows Joe!!! The rest
of the stories in the issue are about
plain pictures (8 of them) like
MANHANDLED, MASSACRE
RIVER, JIGSAW and NOT
WANTED. Believe me, when I
learned from Cal what I was miss-
ing, I raged thru my whole house,
from cellar to attic, kicking every
collector’s item in all 10 rooms
(plus 3-car garage jampacked solid
with sagging shelves). I got my ace
filmonster scout, Dan Levitt, on
the phone to ball him out. When
he heard what it was all about, he
had one simple succinct comment:
“Nuts!” There aren’t any such
ma^, according to Dan; and I am
inclined to agree. But, on the other
hand, devoted as my life has been
to METROPOLIS, up until a year
ago I didn’t know— didn’t
dream— there was a publication
called “Metropolis Magazine.”
So — anything is possible. I sup-
pose. But — For many years Hugo
Gemsback in his predecessor of
“Amazing Stories,” SCIENCE &
INVENTION, ran a standing of-
fer of $21,000 for Proof of
Psychical Manifestations. (A
sizable sum even by today’s in-
flated standards, it was truly im-
pressive in the 20s when a dollar
would buy several times what it
will today.) As far as I know, no
medium ever collected any of the
money for a satisfactory
demonstration. I am not a corpora-
tion with that kind of money to lay
on the line but it would be worth
$25 to me personally to learn the
names & dates of the “number of
one-shot horror-movie mag at-
tempts evident from 1939 thru the
early Forties.” Calvin Thomas
Beck, this is your Golden Oppor-
tunity knocking; your easy oppor-
tunity to pick up a cool quarter-
bill and at the same time perform
a signal service for your reader-
ship & all monsterdom. My inter-

pretation of “a number of at-
tempts” would be 4 or 5 but even
the naming of ONE will satisfy me
that you’ve earned the $25.
However—! Even if Beck does
surprise us all & come up with a
“prehistoric” title unknown to the
experts, I will not accept that—
nor do I believe will any
reasonable person— as proof that
FAMOUS MONSTERS was but
imitating earlier efforts. Hugo
Gemsback himself, in Aug. ’23,
put out what he called the Scien-
tific Fiction Number of SCIENCE
& INVENTION, an issue featur-
ing a science fiction painting on
the cover and 6 “scientifiction”
stories within in addition to the
regular contents of a vast variety
of scientific articles. But nobody
ever refers to this as the first sci-fi
mag, and it was nearly 3 full years
later that Gemsback created
AMAZING. What Beck is trying
to do is the same sort of foolish-
ness as if, in 1931, when the short-
lived MIRACLE SCIENCE &
FANTASY STORIES came out,
its editor-publisher had pooh-
poohed the contention that his
publication was in any way in-
debted to AMAZING STORIES
for its inspiration, or that Hugo
Gemsback wasn’t first, because of
the aforementioned issue of
SCIENCE & INVENTION or
because (perhaps) sometime in
1925, ’24 or ’23 WEIRD TALES
had an issue practically devoted to
sci-fi or because around the time
of World War I there was, for 3
years in Germany, a fantasy
magazine called “Orchideen-
garten” (Orchid Garden). Warren
& I wonder why all these
souigrape artists don’t do the
gentlemanly thing and give up?
Then they could get back to their
business of publishing physical
culture magazines and we could
devote more time to simply going
along & producing the most in-
teresting, exciting, ever fresh &
fanciful publication we know how,
and being well rewarded if the ma-
jority of you continue to like it as
much as you indicate you do now.
“Mi estas parolinta’— I have
spoken. FJA.

THE LOUD & THE LAUD

I really think you were entirely
justified in telling that loudmouth
off (the commu-nut) and I laud
your idea of not printing his name
so as not to give him the satisfac-
tion of seeing it in print. I am not
surprised that you received a let-
ter like that, tho, because most
low-brow people have to figure out
some method of getting their
names in print. “Silver Threats
Among the Gold” V^y Good with
a good ending. “Calling Dr.
Caligari”— Bloch’s article

marvelous, as usual. “Son of
Kong’— Horray! I didn’t think it
could be done. So many good
things in one magazine! This one
is as good as anything you’ve run
in the past and it’s only a continua-
tion (did I say only?) of another
article, “The King & F— One of
the best & most deserved articles
I have seen in your mag. Could
you tell me whether any of A.
Merritt’s novels besides 7 FOOT-
PRINTS TO SATAN and DEVIL
DOLL were made into movies? It
seems to me the movie makers are
missing a bet there. (Me too. No,
they never made any others.
Disney or Pal should do his SHIP
OF ISHTAR before Italy learns of
it! CREEP, SHADOW! should be
filmed, and the time is ripe for
refilming 7 FOOTPRINTS TO
SATAN. I sent Jim Nicholson a
copy of the book, recently; why
don’t all of you follow it up with
a letter to him asserting your vote
as a reader of FAMOUS
MONSTERS and demanding
him to produce 7 FOOTPRINTS?!
Might work. With Lorre as the
diabolic villain and Price or
Milland as the terrorized victim.

STEVE FAHP^TALK
EVERETT, WASH.

REALLY CARRION ON

There are people who call
themselves editors, publishers &
art directors who can write words,
print pictures & arrange material.
When, in 8 cases out of 10, the
editors can’t write words worth
reading, the publishers can’t judge
any sort of quality & the art direc-
tor comes up with a debased ar-

114

rangement, you have your sloven-
ly horror pulps; pulps which tend
to reek poorness and drag the
general status of a mag like
FAMOUS MONSTERS down.
It’s too bad. (Stui^eon’s Law:
90% of everything is crud.) Th^
remind me of the carrion-eater, the
hyena, who comes slinking along
to grind some of the leftovers that
the lion has made. Well, needless
to say, FM symbolizes that lion
and your unworthy competitors the
hyena, which leads me to one
thing— the merits of your
magazine, in fact, the downright
sanity of it. The major asset of FM
is its ability to improve itself,
diversify & go off the very beaten
track to please readers.

JOS. MARCHELLO
FOREST fflLLS, NY

THE DWELLER IN
THE MIRAGE

In the 27th number, March ’64, 1 introduced what
I thought was an absolutely smashing idea. What
if Lon Chaney had lived and played the Frankens-
tein monster, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, all
of the manimals on Dr. Moreau’s Island of Lost
Souls??? Fabulous artist Geoige Barr was employed
to show us Chaney as Frankenstein in the first of
the series known as Mirage World. Alas, it was not
to last long, axed in its infancy by the publisher,
who claimed the readers didn’t understand my con-
cept of “an enchanted world that exists parallel to
our own in which a Shadow Chaney lives on.”
Freed from the yoke of The Boss, I have sometimes
toyed with the notion of reviving the Mirage World.

In a new dept.. The Voice of Fiendom, Oscar
G. Estes Jr. reported on the First Karloffornia
Monster Convention, 16/17 Dec. ’61.

In Haunt Ads, Ifete Claudius announced the com-
pletion of The EnCYCLOPSpedia. The name of

Frankie Larkin appeared for the firstime\ today he
operates an in-house private movie club in
Hollywood for film buffs of oldtime mopix. Here
we find the name of G. John Edwards, a young fan
who, at the early age of something like 15, wrote
a TV script, “The Golem Affair,,” that excited the
interest of the story editor of THE MAN FROM
U.N.C.L.E. At one time G. John, thru my Agen-
cy, submitted a script for THE MAN WHO
LAUGHS to Christopher Lee for a starring role and
Lee enthused, “I would not change one word of this
screenplay!” Alex Soma was represented with in-
formation about his lithoed fanzine Horrors of the
Screen. More clubs, more fanzines, and from a
reader in W. Babylon, NY, you could purchase the
first 21 issues of FM for $10! (I don’t think there’s
any use in including his name & address.)

Barry Geller wrote with fire in
his eye, or rather his fireplace: FJA
is so conceited it is impossible to
read the magazine without a note
or a little remark from our sweet
little editor. Especially when he has
an article about his wonder^l
house. I was thinking of getting a
subscription to your mag but right
now issue No. 25 and the letter are
in the fireplace, burning.

Terence PCrlans perked me up with: I love your
letters from the kids who hate your magazine. I just
love them.

FRIGHTENING
MAGAZINE ON EARTH”

Foto of FJA as Technician #3 in the 21st century
android factory of THE TIME TRAVELERS.

Torticola, “The Most Horrible Frankenstein”:
Michel Piccoli. Fritz Lang brought this famous
French star to visit me in the original Ackermansion.

I’m absolutely staggered as I look back at these
old issues at the number of fans who were wanting
things and trading things and selling things. Keith
Nordstrom had an ad for “FJA FANS!— For sale

115

to the highest bidder: Issue #27, Mar. ’57 of OTHER
WORLDS SCIENCE STORI^. This issue includes
12 movie reviews and 2 pix of Forrest J Ackerman.”
Wow!

And here was a snapshot of Christopher Lee
Cobun, looking about 3. About 20 years later he
came to visit me, now a splendid young man, and
as he was leaving he said, “Now I’m going to do
something I’ve been wanting to do for nearly 20
years.” I couldn’t imagine what it was and was very
surprised when he came over and gave me a great
big hug like his favorite uncle. I was very touched.

BOTH Tor Johnson & Forrest Ackerman
got their names misspelled on the
advertisement plaque. Pair made a
number of appearances at a supermarket.

FLESH GORE-DOM

THE FLESH EATERS was featured on the cover
and sneaked on the interior. Something more suit-
able for Ringoria today.

A poem was about the most bitterly criticized
thing I ever wrote in the history of FM! Maybe it
wasn’t so hot (judge for yourself)* but I think
primarily the readers rose in righteous indignation
*See page 120

because they thought I was “throwing away” Peter
Lorre with a “lousy poem,” allowing only a por-
tion of a page for his obituary. It was not till the
next issue that I was able to rectify this “egregious
oversight.” A few years later I was in an auditorium
at the University of California with Fritz Lang, see-
ing a double bill of Marlene Dietrich in THE BLUE
ANGEL and Director Lang’s own WEARY
DEATH**. At the intermission the lights went up
and my friend Fritz discovered Celia Lovsky sitting
nearby behind us. He discovered her in the audience
or she discovered him, I don’t recall exactly which
now. They had known each other for perhaps 40
years. Celia Lovsky was in George Pal’s THE
POWER, was Lon Chaney’s mother in MAN OF
A THOUSAND FACES, was in SOYLENT
GREEN and portrayed the matriarchal Vulcan in
AMOK TIME; also, she was Peter Lorre’s first
wife and last love. I mentally cringed as this dear
old lady was introduced to me, thinking “Oh my
God— I hope she didn’t read ‘the poem’!” But she
looked at me with that fragile angelic face, and her
eyes misted, and she took my hands in hers, and
she said, “Oh, Mr. Ackerman! The poem! The
poem\ I always wanted to contact you and thank you,
it was so beautiful, but I didn’t know if it would
be proper.” Well, Vllbe darrmed\ I thought. If Celia
Lovsky liked the poem, the hell with the rest cf the
worldl We became good friends, I talked with her
many times on the phone, kept her supplied with
Hagen-Dasz ice cream (her favorite), and not too
long before she died she called me over one after-
noon and opened a bureau drawer, a treasure trove,
and offered me all the fotos of Peter Lorre I cared
to take. Also pictures of herself. At one time on
the Berlin stage she had pl^ed Alraune, the soulless
mandragorian siren portrayed in silence & sound
by Brigitte (METROPOLIS) Helm and Erich
(CRESPI) von Stroheim. The soulless siren! That
took some acting. As an atheist I don’t believe in
souls but if anybody had one it was dear celestial
Celia!

“A MONSTROUS LOSS”

Sept. ’63, #30, and I was able to make up for

♦♦Whenever he spoke to me on the phone he announced, “Here
speaks Director Fritz Lang.” Sometimes he called me his Darl-
ing, his Angel; at others he cursed God for plaguing him with
such a devil.

116

“the poem” by devoting 8 pages to “the Little
Giant,” “the Ix)rd High Minister of All that was
Sinister.” Great Lugosi cover by Russ Jones. Letter
by G. John Edwards, who typed so impeccably and
spelled so perfectly that I assumed he was a man
about 50, perhaps a court reporter, and was amaz-
ed to learn he was only something like 13.

NO. 29 VERY FINE

The front cover was magnifi-
cent!— the most fantastic adjective
I can think of would only scratch
the surface of my opinion. The
FLESH EASTERS face was very
striking & colorful, an excellent
subject; and the colors used were
superb & ultrasuperfantabu-
remarkamonsterish (you have hit
on a great title for a new hor-
ror magazine except we prefer
something with a little more
meat & substance to it).

The fotos, as usual, were
wonderful, and 1 am glad to see
the reappearance— no matter in
how small a form— of the letters
section.

“Monsters on the March” good
tho sorta short. The obit for
Lorre, I think, unfortunately was
not too good, but counting all ex-
cept the poem, it would not have
been too bad.

Hate! Hate! Hate! — is all 1 can
think of saying when I learn of
some greeb snatching the editor’s
Dracula ring & personal stills.

“Blood Relatives’— very well
written, nice ending.

“Are Movie Monsters Human?”
was a nice feature, and I would
like to see Chris Lee be the He
Who Tee-Hee (MAN WHO
LAUGHS) too.

While I am in a jestful mood,
did you hear about the latest cars
furnished by Hearse-Rent-A-
Car(cass)? They’re equipped with
kick-the-bucket seats . . . (An
elephant should sit on you for
that, and that’s no Elephant
Joke!)

Now, while I have regained my
senses (?) I would like to say that
the constant puns & jokes under
the fotos, and the half-serious at-
mosphere of the articles, has led
me to believe that I have picked up
a magazine called FAMOUS

PUNSTERS OF FILMLAND.

“Flesh Eaters” was written in a
serious manner and was ap-
preciated by me & probably all us
“little monsters” for said quality.
Stills were intriguing.

“The End of ISLE OF LOST
SOULS” was OK but why no in-
teresting fax about the film at the
end?

“Jerry Lewis Meets the
Monsters’— tsk-tsk. If not for the
plug (plague) in the monster in-
dustry) for BM, I would heartily
disapprove of this reversion to
primitive features.

“Hidden Horrors”— great!

“Mexicreatures” was fine for its
size, and the matter of some 20
films was handled expertly. Fine
stills, too. Did it ever occur to
anyone that American remakes of
some of the Mexibest would strike
up quite a line at the boxoffice?
The monster films of Way Down
South might be likened unto ours
of the early 40s but in nowise are
th^ comparable to ours of the 30s.

“Hall of Fame’— OK

“Mystery Photo” looks like
sumpin’ from TEENAGE ZOM-
BIES or the like.

“The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao” was
given better treatment in FM than
it was on the screen! (That, I
think, should be one of the mot-
toes of the monstermag business:
if the film’s lousy, mske it seem
better, and if it’s great, make it
seem greater. It should be if it
already isn’t.)

“You Axed For It” was equally
divided between the well-done &
the smell-done films.

“Mole People” was too brief. A
couple of the interesting elements
of Ae story were deleted.

“Making Monsters” was sort of
a 60-40 division between the bad
& good, respectively. One more
good foto and I would’ve given it
a “very good” stamp.

So, in summing up the issue, the
main features were great and most
of the minor features were fair. I
wouldn’t have the heart to say
“fooey” to any of them. As a
whole, a very impressive &
relatively superb issue.

G. JOHN EDWARDS
San Francisco, Calif.

117

Ringo Starr was quoted as saying “I try not to
think about the panting, screaming female fans. I
take my mind off them by reading lots of science

DON POST SR. looks over my shoulder at
copy of my companion magazine Monster
World as Karloffian Mr. Hyde and quasi-
Quasimodo look on in masks created by
the late Don of mask-makers.

fiction. It’s my great kick.” Lon Chaney Jr. didn’t
appreciate what they were doing to his dad as The
Hunchback of Notre Dame in a TV show called
Fractured Flicks which put ludicrous dialog in
Quasimodo’s mouth.

The following ad startled the filmonster fan world.
It was the result of a commercial decision on the
part of the publisher. FM was now so popular that
he felt we could stand to go monthly but the ques-
tion was, which would sell better— a monthly FM
or a bimonthly FM plus a bimonthly companion?
He believed the two months’ exposure for both was
the desirable solution so Monster Wbrld was born.
It was really simply FM in a different guise.

NEW MAGAZINE

FfiCTSi : ihtehtiews

make-ups:

LUGOSI! : LEE-PRICE

contests!

GBRljEViiiURLOFF.

'mi •

SSSSSSiS ; 355

sssas:

SiiiKu, •

E aSHSSiSSiSS

“Werewolf in Monsterland” covered in words &
graphics the fabulous weekend in Horrorwood won
by FM reader Val Warren, winner of FM’s Monster
Makeup Contest. In 7 heady days he met Robert
Bloch, Donald Reed, Fritz Leiber, Martha RIDERS
TO THE STARS Hyer, John (THE EVIL EYE)
Saxon, Janos (Holly weird apeman) Prohaska, Hope
Lugosi (Bela’s fifth & final wife), George (STRATT-
JACKET) Kennedy, Jim Nicholson (prexy of AIP),
attended a meeting of the Los Angeles Science Fan-
tasy Society, visited the LaBrea tar pits (last resting
place of numerous dinosaurs), roamed the 13 rooms
of the Ackermansion, was photographed wearing
the head of The Creature from the Black
Lagoon . . . and last but not least appeared in a
cameo as a werewolf in BIKINI BEACH.

118

DON’T READ THIS LETTER IF YOU DIE EASILY

Sit back for a minute and think
of all the worthwhile & necessary
things in the world and I’ll bet
FAMOUS MONSTERS isn’t one
of them. I was shocked to see this
type of magazine on the stands.
Most parents are happy that their
children don’t pick up a trashy
magazine but Aey don’t realize
that FM is, in its own way, just as
bad.

Let me state that horror & sci-
fi pictures have played their part
in the development of the motion
picture industry and in entertain-
ment. But must people like you
turn out a magazine so people can
gloat over the blood & gore long
after it’s over? And to top it off you
can’t even do what you do correct-
ly, those idiotic captions, etc.

In conclusion let me ask you
this: Must you have contests which
encourage readers to make
themselves up like monsters and
write stories for “Darltest Acula?”
In place of FM why not read a
great literary classic or current
novel (isn’t that pretty risl^?) or
a magazine or newspaper. (What
magazines would you recom-
mend? Most of them seem to
deal with movie gossip, public
figure scandals, “true” horror
stories, teenage “confessions,”
war, crime, vice, etc. And the
lastime I was in your state — New
York— and picked up a paper, I
was rarely so shocked in my life

as at the headline & gory fotos
on a sensation.

Followed by:

As you are reading this you are
probably thinking: “Oh, we got
another one of those fanatics
writing us.” (You are a mind
reader!) Well, I say this to that:
I know what I’m doing is right.
I’m trying to serve the public in-
terest. (But is the public in-
terested?) I don’t dare you to print
this (at least that’s a welcome
change), I beg you to. Maybe
some of the people reading this
will wake up. (Anyone caught
sleeping while reading this
magazine is exiled to Tran-
sylvania!) I know I speak for a lot
of people around here. (Remind
me to detour Glen Cove on my
next tour of flendom.) I believe
you will print this if you believe
in the truth. Let there be
something decent about you.

MITCHELL BOCK
Glen Cove, NY

• Well, to begin with, having
published your letter, at least (by
your own deflnition) we qualify
as having something decent
about us. And we believe in the
truth— we just happen, contrary
to you, to believe that we are
serving the public interest.
Correction: the public princi-
ple. . .the highest interest rate

nowadays is about 5%, so you’re
welcome to serve 5% of the peo-
ple while we aim to please the
other 95%. We believe that
within the 5% you are trying to
serve you will also find earnest
individuals who know they are
doing right when th^^ campaign
to put clothes on animals : pants
on poodles, skirts on
cats... what next: “toreadors”
on cows? We’d agree that
humanity would be improved by
putting more toreadors on bulls’
horns but would like to see
movie censors permanently
unemployed, think the post of-
fice should speed up the delivery
of mail — not stop to read it, etc.
If Merlin Jones (of Disney’s new
mind-reading comedy) really ex-
isted, probably smieone l^e Mr.
Beck, who in some mysterious
manner “knew he was right,”
would want Merlin to start
reading people’s minds so next
think you knew everybody
would be arrested for what they
were thinking that didn’t suit
somebody else who just natm^-
ly knew what was best for the
rest of society. The editor &
publisher of FM feel that the
older they grow the less they
know positively what is right;
they have a feeling that only one
rather youi^ can be so positive.
We feel that FM is right for
those to whom it appeals.

119

To Forrest J. Ackerman,
Acutest of Critics.

H.R Lovecraft, Jany. 8, 1932

Well, I was pretty cute, ’way back then.

The name Craig Miller appear. Living in
Rochester, NY, at the time, is it possible it’s the same
CM who today is the fantasy film flack of Con
Artists here in Horrorwood?

Peter Lorre died at a time when there was less
than a page available to record his passing. I don’t
fancy myself a poet but for some reason I was
moved to versify about his demise as follows:

PRINCE SIRKI TAKES
VAN HELSING

In my 31st number, Dec. 1964, it was no
Christmas present to the Imagi-nation to have to an-

Born: June 26, 1904
Died: March 23, 1964

Of horror and humor it was splendidly blended
But this day by stroke your life— it ended.

In BEAST WITH 5 FINGERS,

FACE BEHIND THE MASK,

MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.

You were all that one could ask.

RAVEN.

TALES OF TERROR.

The MOTO Series, famous “M”. k

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.

F.P.I.

And MAD LOVE.

You’ll be missed for all of them.

For 30 years and a few years more
You led our fears thru terror’s door.

With weird wide eyes and strange-voiced lips
Your unique face launched a thousand grips
To monsterdom, not fiend but friend:

We shall not see your kind again.

Sad-fond farewell, dear Peter Lorre
From all your fans and
Editor Forty

120

The late Edward Van Sloan

nounce that venerable vampire fighter Edward Van
Sloan, 82, had heeded the call of the master of us
all and departed to Death’s Domain.

IAN (“MAD LOVE” & MANY
MORE) WOLFE comments on
“Mr. Monster”: Recently finishing
one of the Steven Spielberg series
“Amazing Stories” (as guest star
for one: “Grandpa’s Ghost”), I
realized that Mr. Spielberg’s recent
writing of Mr. Ackerman’s early
influence on him harked back to
when he and some others now pro-
minent in films and Tel. were then
Forry’s fascinated ]dds\ When
Thalbeig brought the “big bad
Wolf-e” to Hollywood in 1934 for
character parts, little did I realize
that I would later be working for
some of those pups such as
Spielberg and George Lucas (I did
the Philosopher in the latter’s firet
film “THX 1138” and wish he
could now restore, for the record,
the long, fine speech I had that
was chopped short!). Yes, Forrest
J Ackerman’s “Emerald Forrest”
and his extensive archives have
related, in one way or another, to
quite a few of the 200 M . Pic and
182 Tel things — scads of character
jobs— I’ve been undertaking! And
at 89 I’m still kick’n-n-workin—
even though I may possibly totter
around a bit!!!!!

This issue announced a $2500 Contest wherein
readers could create instant monsters.

MONSTER MODEL
MAKERS

March 1965, #32, featured the winners of our
Aurora-Universal-FM contest. 16-year-old Gregg
Gellman and his mother were flown to Holly weird,
where I hosted them, and within the first 24 hours
they had seen or met Herman Munster, Robert
Bloch, Grant, William Castle, Natalie Wood,
Ib Melchior and Tony Curtis . . .

FACE 1001 was the revelation about Lon Chaney’s
greatest characterization, unknown at large till then.
Qarence BuU, for more than 40 years the top photo-
grapher of the top stars, told the amazing story to
Raymond Lee of how he photographed Lon Chii^
as. . .Jesus Christ! And of where, when and how
perhaps the only surviving print of it surfaced!

In “Headlines from Horrorsville” Marlon Brando
related that the most popular picture ever to play
in Tahiti (where he’d filmed MUTINY ON THE
BOUNTY) was. . .DRACULA! “It’s been playing
there annually since 1932.” We had regretfully to
report that Charles Beaumont, 35; scripter of THE
7 FACES OF DR. LAO, coscripter of BURN,
WITCH, BURN and author of mai^ a Twilight Tone
script; was seriously ill. Before long he would be
dead, prematurely aged and a vegetable, of either
Alzheimer’s or Pick’s disease — an autopsy was never
performed to determine which. Vampira, the
predecessor of Elvira, was quoted as saying “I give
epitaphs not autographs!” In the readers’ dept, there
was a letter from a Michael Jackson (!) of Nashville,
TN, but it couldn’t have been the Michael Jackson
of “Thriller” unless he’s considerably older than he
appears to be!

Pessimist-of-the-Month was John C. Boland of
Moline, IL, who put down imagi-movies & terror-
vision with these words:

PESSIMIST

In regard to motion pictures in general, I can
think of no better description than the one Rod Serl-
ing used for television, “diseased organism.” Prob-
ably the only decent sf movie in the last 30 years
was LORD OF THE FLIK. (Now there’s an
arguable statement! As one who has seen virtual-
ly every imaginative movie ever made since
1923 — and revivals of mai^ fUmed before that— I

121

would certainly say that LORD OF THE FLIES
belon^in Walt Lee’s definitive Checklist of Fan-
tastic Films. I saw it previewed with Ray Brad-
bury; he hated it, I thought it was great. But
1 didn t consider, then or now, that I was seeing
a science fiction picture. An odd film, an offbe^
one, one I would certainly recommend to fan-
tasy fans. Come to think of it, ages ago in the
old Aigosy magazine they had a term for this
whether LORD OF
IHE FLI^ was sci-fi or no, I take strong ex-
ception to the assertion that there were probably
no other decent scientifilms in the past 3 decades,
a^ offer the names in evidence of: TRANS-

tunnel, things to come,

WAR OF THE WORLDS, DELUGE, THE

unknown, village of the
damned, enemy from space, DESTINA-
TION moon, FHIST SPACESHIP ON VFM«
^^^UU'^UELOVE. Also the recent
modestly budgeted, unspectacular but soundly

stbam/™ UNEARTHLY

SI RANGER, which I consider to be the
sleeper” of the year-FJA) Everything else is
either monsters from the moon or somewhere
Space wars in which fledgling Earth manages to
clobter the big bad Mysterians and other such trivia.
(Mtho I personally had reservations about both
of them, I know most scientifilm lovers were very

Same with television. The Outer Limits is pro-
bably the lousie^ (literally) flop sf fans have W
nessed. (Not tWs fan.) Why the heck don’t they
Iwe mass me^ sf handled by someone who knows
^ittle about it (not about mass media, about sf)‘>
The field is certainly being helped little by in-
competents like Stefano and— yes— Selling. About
the only good thing on TV over the last year that
^ good adaptation
of Mr Bradbury s The Jar. Quite frankly, I think
they should dump the whole business. (In that event
1 would have missed such Outer Limits treats-
to ^ taste—as the oue about the man who evolv-
ed t^ various stages to the supermentality of
the far future; the house where time stood still-
the plot against the President of the United
States, involving malleable faces; etc. And, on
other occasions, the late Sir Cedric Hardwicke
m the great “Mr. Crane”; “The Power”, which
wo. M IS MW developing as a feature-length
film; Geo. Orwell’s “1984”; Robt. Linder’s
remarkable “Jet-PropeUed Couch”.) If someone
cmes along who’s willing to take the time & mental
etlort to produce good science fiction on film, okay!

Moon Flowers to the man. But
until then, why not just forget it— sit back and
remember fondly those wonderful days when
twilight zone” was nothing more than synoiwmous
with dusk and the wonders of METROPOLIS reign-
ed supreme! Incidentally, the book “Metropolis”

was quite incredibly bad. That purple prose near-
ly drips off the page. I^rhaps if it had been van
Vogt that had written it. . .

JOHN C. BOLAND
Moline, 111.

According to the Annual Statement of Circula-
number of copies distributed at the time
was 147,M2. But I question the accuracy of those
figures. I was in Warren’s office one day when he
gave out about 5 different sets of figures. If some-
one came m for a charitable donation, he was only
prmtmg 5 copies and selling 2, and one of those
was bought by his editor and the other by Warren’s
mother. If someone came in wishing to know the
advening rates, EM was selling 750,000 copies-
and that was just in the Bronx. (So how come we
never featured a Bronxosaurus reading a copy?) If
I asked for a raise, we were on our last legs and
would be lucky if the magazine didn’t go bankrupt
before sundown ... ^

wow, WHATTA COVER!

Kon (ALIEN) Cobb knocked our eyes out with
his closeup rendition of Quasimodo (Lon Chaney)
as the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Rich Wannen
was one of 3 readers awarded prizes me this issue
tor mterest Above & Beyond the call of booty.”
Possibly it was because around that time he made
me a terrific model of the Nautilus from Disney’s
20,000 LEAGUE UNDER THE SEA or because
he cameo’d me in his 3-hour homemade sequel to
V^R OF THE WORLDS. Steve Utley surfaced in
mis issue and now you see his byline on science
fiction stories.

Rod Serling was reported palavering with the
TOwers That Be at Paramount about making a
feature-length 3-in-l Twilight Zone for theatrical
release. It would be nearly 20 years before this vi-
sion would materialize and in the meantime Rod
would have been long dead.

Ray Wander hoped to remake MARK OF THE
\^PIM and was gearing up to get FJA on TV’s
Inis Is mur Life. . .when he died and his projects
died aborning.

122

ROD— The God and guiding light behind
the Twilight Zone. Serling, of the Sterling
stories of the Xth dimension.

In Monster Mail Call there was an unhappy echo
of my poem about the demise of Peter Lorre as
David Rowland characterized my verse as down-
right foolish, like something out of a soap opera,
and a sickening tribute. My response follows:

•David, I believe you. Many other readers wrote
and condemned the poem. I don’t know “why”
I tried my hand at expressing a memoriam for
Peter Lorre in verse rather tlran the usual prose
but at the time it was what I felt like doing. It
definitely didn’t come off well, as many readers
have made me realize, and no one could be
unhappier than I, to have a respected man’s life
in my hands, as it were, and then bungle the
opportunity to express a tribute in a fashion
acceptable to the majority. “Sad-fond farewell”
was an honest sentiment and I fail to imderstand
why saying it on behalf of myself and his ad-
mirers should be interpreted as “sick” but I do
recognize that I failed in what I set out to do.
I’m sorry, it was an honest mistake, and what
more can I say?— FJA.

CHEERS FOR CHANEY

Aug. ’65, #34, and my editorial judgment was
vindicated as the compliments poured in on FACE
1001 .

641^ace #100rMhere was a lot of discussion
-T around the editorial desk as to whether this
article should be published.

Was it perhaps too “unmonsterish?”

Would it be believed?

Would it be appreciated?

Finally the publisher took the bull — in this case,
Clarence Bull— by the horse, and gave the green
light to the publication of “IA.CE #1001.” It was

featured in our 32d issue. In introducing it James
Warren said: ‘‘I deem it quite possible that the ar-
ticle you are about to read may become the new
all-time favorite.”

The readers’ reactions are in. Here are some of
them— judge for yourself.

Excellent. Best article yet. Alone worth the price
of the magazine.— & Daniel Drazen, Ber-
wyn, 111.

Grand, superb in every detail. It showed Lon
Chaney as he really was, a human being, not just
a monster actor. I know most people would not
have thought that he would have played that role.
Lon Chaney may never be remen^ered like Christ
but as long as there are monster fans his memory
will never Rickie Faulk, Orange, Tex.

Excellent article. It had something in it that
“got me,” I can’t describe /f.— Unknown reader.

When I read “Face iflOOl” I just had to write
to you. I think it was the best article you’ve ever
put out on Lon Chaney Sr. It even changed my
father’s point of view. Ever since he bought me

123

my sub he had been regretting it. Now he likes
FM almost as much as I do (which is incompara-
able).— Tom Sanders, Richmond, Va.

/ never thought the man who portrayed men
such as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME could
look like Jesus Christ while in his monster make-
up. “Rice MOOT’ was terrific.— Bsogor McClannen,
Lafayette, Ind.

An important discovery. Should be reprinted
in newspapers across the country. — Jon “Lon”
Wolter, Long Beach, Calif.

Moving & inspiring. A heart-warming Christ-
mas tale.— T&xiy Hesse, Toledo, O.

What a marvelous article. Photographs won-
derful. I purchased several copies of the issue
because of “Face UlOOL’—Nirs,. John Hampton,
Hollywood, Calif.

A stirring tribute to the memory of the greatest
name in m^-up motion picture history.— Camza D.
Tabb, Dayton, O.

Greatest article for 2 years. Sad yet intriguing.
—Charles Lore, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Thank you again & again for the Lon Chaney ar-
ticle. Any article & every article that you can get
on the master of the macabre, print it. Next
to Boris Karloff, also a great actor, Lon Chaney
is most likely the most popular horror actor ever.
—Bill Williams, Evanston, 111.

What I enjoyed most was the story of Lon Chaney
Sr.’s 1001st Face— it was a very touching t& poig-
nant 5rory-~Marisa Melattie, Woodside, N.Y.

/ want to compliment you oh your wonderful
feature about Lon Chaney.— Bob Lorenzen, Pinker
AFB, Okla.

The greatest article 1 have read in your maga-
zine. Even tho it’s not all-monster it really hits
the spot! Let’s have more like z’r.'— Bill Pfaff,
Wilmington, Del.

Indeed a good article and a pleasure to read.
However, one story like this is fine, too much
would spoil the effect. Stills & writing were
superb. — Jeff Day, Oak Harbor, O.

Great; a sensitive & inspiring look into the life
of Chaney Sr.— Alan Greene, Weiser, Idaho.

Clarence Bull’s “Face MOOT’ was spectacular.
Publisher Warren may well be right when he says
this may take “Mr. Monster’s” place as an all-
time favorite. The accompanying jbtos were also
xlnt.-Maxc A. Russell, Beverly Hills, Calif.

The $1000 Amateur Monster Movie Makers Con-
test Winners were announced and look who one of
the Honorable Mentions was: Paul Davids for his
version of my script, Siegfried Saves Metropolis.
Dave is now a professional prize-winning filmaker
and his pet project is bringing to the screen a
Hawaiian fantasy, FIRES OF PELE. 13-year-old
Barry Brown sent us a compilation of 35 fantasy
film players who left the stage of life in 1964, in
addition to Lorre and Van Sloan including Sir

FJA steels himself to ask for autograph of
Queen of Evil, Barbara Steele.

Cedric Hardwicke and Morris Ankrum. About 10
years later Barry’s name was added to the list, dead
by his own hand. I launched a campaign to try to
establish Fritz Leiber (yes, the author) as another
Rains, Rathbone, Hull, and he was to be screen-
tested for the role of THE WIZARD OF MARS
but only made it to the screen in EQUINOX (aside
from a bit part years before in Greta Garbo’s
CAMILLE)— alas, horrordom’s loss.

In Headlines from Horrorsville there was this
amusing anecdote about Barbara Steele. A gasoline
attendant looked at her puzzled, said, “I could
swear I’ve seen you before.” Removing her sun
glasses, Barbara replied, “In your neighborhood
movie house, no doubt?” “Could be,” he mumb-
led, scratching his head. “Where do you usually
sit?”

William “The Gimmick Master” Castle began
a regular column, “A Message from the Castle of
Terror.”

Blind Hermit Daugherty fiddles while
FrankenForry burns.

124

Whenever I get a Forty book, I
always think of the blind hermit
of The Bride of Frankenstein
who said something like “At
last! In my loneliness, the Good
Lord has sent unto me a
friendV—Al Shamie, now a
35-year-old filmonster fan who
had a drawing of Karloff
Frankenstein in FM #26 when
he was a teenager.

BEFORE MADONNA
THERE WAS MADONA

In the Oct. ’65 number, #35, we pictured Madona
Marchant, First Prize Winner for her SIEGFRIED
SiWES METROPOLIS entry in the Amateur
Monster Movie Makers Contest. Madona before
long married the famous fantasy artist Richard Cor-
ben and for years has served as his model.

Did you know Charlton Heston’s first film was
a fantastic one? PEER GYNT, a tale of gnomes,
elves, trolls, goblins and the Great Boyg. In this
issue we revealed that a 21-year-old David (THEY
SAVED HITLER’S BRAIN) Bradley had produc-
ed, directed & photographed said film, introducing
a i7-year-old Heston.

This issue featured the legendary article
“Monsters are Good for My Children,” written by
Mrs. Terri Pinckard, mother of four, in the hopes
it would influence every anti-monster movie parent
in America. Today, as for over 2 decades, Mrs. Pin-
ckard is the cohostess of the world-famous Pinckard
Science Fiction Writers Salon, to whom have come
such celebrities as Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury,
Donald & Elsie WoUheim, the R)ul Andersons, Col-
in (LIFEFORCE) Wilson, Fritz Leiber, A.E. van
Vogt, Robert Bloch, Georges Gallet (Monsieur
Science Fiction of France), Harlan Ellison, two
astronauts, Ib (THE TIME TRAVELERS)
Melchior and a score more.

COMMENTS FROM
“CASTLE COBUNSTEEV”

We got in late for HANDS OF
ORLAC and missed David f^el
(Dracula as an airplane phot). We
did note Donald (BLOOD OF
THE VAMPIRE) Wolfit briefly as
a surgeon.

I^rhaps a forthcoming issue
could give us a little information
on horror regular Noble Johnson
(THE MUMMY, MURDERS IN
THE RUE MORGUE, GHOST
BREAKERS, KING KONG, etc.).
(We would be dlighted to do an
article on Noble Johnson, whom
we agree well deserves same, but
are frank to confess that we
don’t know anything about the
man— even if he is alive or dead.
We would be most happy to hear
from any reader or readers who
can supply biographical &
filmographical information
about him.)

I’d like to see a filmbook done
on the most frightening Hunch-
back of all, Charles Laughton.
This was a real Gothic horror. I
still chill when I remember
Maureen O’Hara running up one
side of a fence and Laughton
paralleling her, scuttling along on
the other side, ready to meet her
at the end. Hardwicke’s FroUo was
superb & restrained, Edmund
O’Brien’s Gringoire pleasant but
not foppish, and Tom Mitchell’s
Clopin dynamic. Tom & Charles
died one day apart in the same
hospital, one floor away from each
other. The lights grow dimmer on
the set and no grip can repair the
loss; Don’t you feel like gathering
up Karloff, Price, Chaney, Car-
radine, Johnson, Cushing, Lee, et
al and keeping them in some an-
tiseptic, shatterproof hideaway that
will preserve them, intact, forever,
like a priceless treasure (which, of
course, fliey are)? (Amen to that.)

In A COMEDY OF TER-
RORS, King Boris displayed a
slapstick, bumbling comedy sense
that would have made him another
Stan Laurel, had this been his
bent. But Basil Rathbone walked
away with the whole show— why
doesn’t someone do more with this
great man? He was completely
wasted in AIP’s TALES OF TER-
ROR “Valdemar” segment. A

125

menace perhaps, but a comedian?
YES! “What place is this?” still
evokes laughter at its very mention
in our home. How about an arti-
cle on Bazz? (Coming up or
perhaps already published by
the time you read this.)

Tell ol’ Steve Jochsberger that
Lugosi’s name in THE BLACK
CAT was Dr. Vitus (pronounced
vee-toosh) Verdegast, not Vetos.

Saw Bob Clarke in THE HIDE-
OUS SUN DEMON on TV
recently. It was horrible, alright.
We see Bob regularly in TV com-
mercials, also Ann (MAN THEY
COULD NOT HANG) Doran,
Preston (DR. X) Foster. . .and hear
the voice of George (SOUL OF A
MONSTER) Macready for catsup!
Virginia Christine, the fine
Ananka of THE MUMMY’S
GHOST, can be seen in coffee
commercials. Adam I&efe is do-
ing a Lugosi impression in a throat
lozenge TV ad and even a cereal
had a monstrous butler named
Pinky in their spots. Monsters are
better than ever!

The Oct. ’64 issue of Better
Home Movies had an article about
teenagers making a sci-fi movie,
showing a prominent picture of an
issue of FM they were using for
inspiration. Two kids programs we
see regularly in Cincinnati use
Lugosi-type villains— one called
Belly Lagoona. Even Stan
Frebeig’s candy bar ad has a hand
puppet called Copy Cat who wears
a standup collar cape and talks
with Lugosi accents.

Jose Ferrer is planning a “Mr.
Moto” series. Shades of Peter
Lorre! Joe is 5’10”, which makes
him 7” taller than Peter.

Chris Lee has now done roles
once done by Karloff, Lugosi,

Lorre, Chaney Jr. and also played
the role originally done by Paul
Cavanaugh in MAN IN HALF-
MOON STREET, with Anton
Diffring doing the Nils Asther role
in Hammer’s excellent remake of
the movie (called THE MAN
WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH,
which to my mind far outstripped
the original).

Recently I had the opportunity
to watch an early Karloff movie,
the remake of Chaney Sr’s fust big
hit, THE MIRACLE MAN. Boris
was a greasy grifter and Irving
(DRACULA’S DAUGHTER)
Pichel and Virginia (INVISIBLE
WOMAN) Bruce had featured
roles. “The Frog” was played by
John Wray and he was pretty
horrible.

We are getting another late late
look at the late Laird Cregar’s 2
masterpieces, HANGOVER
SQUARE and THE LODGER.
Foremost in my mind when I think
of these films are the frightening
stroboscopic sequence of Cregar
crawling along the slatted theater
catwalk in LODGER and the
burning of the body on the Guy
Fawtes Day bonfire in SQUARE.
This was later repeated in Price’s
MAD MAGICIAN.

Your magazine versions of
HORROR OF DRACULA &
CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN
were long awaited by many fans
like me and were fine. I know you
have a real tough job turning out
your magazines so maybe I ought
to keep requests at a minimum but
when I get to writing I try to cram
years of wishes into a few pages.
The WOLFMAN filmbook, the
FRANKENSTEIN, SON OF
FRANKENSTEIN, a definitive
HORROR OF DRACULA with

behind-the-scenes stills, CAT-
MAN OF PARIS and THE
BODY SNATCHERS are all
favorite candidates for The
Treatment.

Films in Review borrowed your
phrase “sci-fi” for their movie
review listing in the Oct. ’64 issue
to describe ROBINSON CRUSOE
ON MARS. Sy Weintraub is plan-
ning a TARZAN ON VENUS tv
series. A bubble gum compaity has
a new series of Outer Limits cards
in color. I mourn the passing of
the latter.

Here are a couple of noodlin’
notes to wrap things up.

Q: How many times did Bela
Lugosi visually change into a bat
as Dracula?

A: Once (in ABBOTT & COS-
TELLO MEET FRANKEN-
STEIN).

Q: Did you know that the actor
who portrayed Richardson the
gravedigger killed by Lon Chaney
in THE WOLFMAN was also one
of the grave robbers who helped
resurrect him in the sequel,
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE
WOLFMAN?

BILL, DOE, KP &
CHRISTOPHER LEE COBUN
Erlanger, Ky,

• It is always a pleasure to share
with our readers a letter from
people who see so many imagi-
movies & fantasd tv shows, who
so obviously enjoy fiendom and
are so knowledgable about
fllmonsters. We look forward to
many more such information-
packed letters from the fine folk
who inhabit the Castle
Cobunstein.

It was with great sorrow that I was informed of
the death of wife Doe Cobun not too many years
later.

In Bill Obbagy’s column were 2 facts I’d forgot-
ten: that Curtis Harrington had scheduled me to
play the corpse in CADAVER, adapted from the
book I agented, “Deliver Me from Eva,” and to
appear in an unmade sequel to QUEEN OF
BLOOD, THE RETURN OF VELANA. Obbagy
(the greatest Lugosi fan of his day) also reported
the theft of Tobor the Great, last seen standing in
front of an antique shop in Vampira’s neighborhood
in Beverly Hills.

DOWN MUMMERY LANE

Dec. ’65, #36, featured the transcript of my TV
interview with Joe Franklin who to this day appears
on the videowaves with his perennial program
DOWN MEMORY LANE. Franklin said of me
on the air:

You are to science fiction what
Dick Clark is to rock ‘n’ roll.

A scoop was Vincent Price as Prof. Jarrod, the
“face of fire” from the HOUSE OF WAX.

LUGOSI LORE

#37, Feb. ’66. An unusual feature, “Lugosi’s
Haunted House”: fact or fiction? “An Hour with
Karloff.” The death of Frank Reicher, the skipper
who sailed Denham’s men to Skull Island.
Headlines from Horrorsville: Karloff has narrated
a film called MONSTER CONVENTION. . .Car-
roll (Luna) Borland played the lead role in the
monsterrific comedy skit she wrote for the Count
Dracula Soc’y, MY FAIR ZOMBIE. . .PLANET
(QUEEN) OF BLOOD fictionized for pocketbook
by Charles Nuetzel, son of FM cover artist Albert

Nuetzell (dad affected double “els” in his signature).
Intro to the book by FJA . . . FJAgented pocketbook
“The Widderburn Horror” to costar Chaney Jr. &
Carradine, be known as NIGHT OF THE
BEAST. . .Brother Theodore stars in a short sub-
ject version of THE TELL-TALE HEART.

The Apr. ’66, #38 issue was distinguished (almost
extinguished) by causticomments from Bruce Gor-
don, Fullerton, CA, to wit:

“IT STINKS!”

127

AND WE THOUGHT ALL
GORDONS (BERT, ALEX,
RUTH, RICHARD, FLASH)
WERE NICE GUYS!

FM fell flat on its face at the
start. After 21 issues it picked itself
up and became a positively
magnificent magazine. Then, after
6 short issues, it happened, it just
slid down hill and shattered into
a pile of garbage. Something hap-
pened in the short time between
issues 27 & 28. Something horri-
ble. I dunno what but it sure ruin-
ed die mag. The editorials became
a stale collection of old jokes. The
tiity print disappeared. The articles
cheapened. The paper changed.
The writing sunk. I have absolute-
ly no praise for FM now. It stinks.
It is absolute junk. Horrible.

BRUCE GORDON
FuUteron, Calif.

• The badder we get, the better
we sell. Proving people will col-
lect anything. Consider: there
are even garbage collectors!

Hopefully the issue was redeemed by such
features as “White Zombie,” “Curse of the
Demon,” “The End of the Ymir” (conclusion of
the novelization of 20 MILLION MILES TO
EARTH) and “The Daleks Invade England.” In-
cidentally, the cover (the Ymir rampaging in Rome)
was by the noted sci-fi artist Gray Morrow, later
to be very popular with the readers of the Perry
Rhodan magabooks I edited.

FURANKENSHUTAIN!

The Japanese Frankenstein was featured on the
cover of #39, June ’66, and inside Carroll Borland
broke a 30-years’ silence for me to reveal “What
Makes Luna Tick.”

I was flipping thru the issue to see what else there
was of note and had just turned to the coverage I
did on FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE
MONSTER when I got a call from radio station
WLAN in Lancaster, PA, and found myself going
out over the air. When the interviewer asked me
what was the worst monster movie of all time, there
the info was spread out before me on the typewriter.
Quote:

First there was FIRE MAIDENS OF
OUTER SPACE

Then CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON.

ROBOT MONSTER set new records.
FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTER
broke them.

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE top-
ped them all.

And now— once in a generation— a
monster film destined to take its place
beside THE CRAWLING TERROR.

TEENAGER MONSTER, THE
ASTOUNDING SHE MONSTER &

MISSILE TO THE MOON. . .

The picture they said couldn't be
made. . .

The picture that will surely take its
place on the famous “50”. . .

The picture that may even win the
coveted Eegah Award. . .

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE
SPACE MONSTER!

It was also known as MARS ATTACKS PUER-
TO RICO, and Don Willis, in his valuable volume
“Horror and Science Fiction Films” (Scarecrow
Press), says of it, “A rock number over a rocket
launching is some historic first.” Only James Karen
survived this fanta-fiasco and went on to act in
CAPRICORN ONE, POLTERGEIST, TV’s
BIONIC WOMAN, etc. ; the other players vanished
from the face of fihndom.

Something catches my attention in the You Axed
For It dept. Sometimes, if I wanted to run a
particularly good picture but nobody had re-
quested it, I would “fake it” by attributing the
request to people I felt would like to see the still
if they had thought of it. I see a great
2-page spread on an underseas shot of the marinoids
in the 1929 version of THE MYSTERIOUS
ISLAND and I smile to see such names attached
to it as Georges Gallet (Monsieur Science Fiction
of France) , Pierre Versins (the peatest collector of
French sf), Lloyd Hughes (juverule lead of the film),
Larry & Paul Brooks (the greatest collectors on
Disney’s 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA),
Warfield Loews (I saw the film for the firstime at
Loew’s Warfield theater in San Francisco!)
and. . .M. Olchewicz. Who he? Well, over half a
century ago I read in some list of pseudonyms that
M. Olchewicz was either Jules Verne’s real name

128

or a pen name of his. So much for my confession
of moral turpitude.

A nice scoop: 13 Faces of Frankenstein as drawn
by Willis O’Brien himself. It was one of his last
dreams that Frankenstein should be paired with
King Kong in an animated confrontation, Mary
Shelly’s monster obviously having in some fashion
become as gigantic as Kong.

In Headlines from Horrorsville we learned that
Boris Karloff credited the fact that in an auto acci-
dent in Hollywood he suffered only relatively minor
bruises because he was strapped in with a safety
belt. “One of the best reasons we’ve ever heard for
wearing a safety belt while driving,” I opined.
“Anything that could help prolong the life of King
Boris we’re heartily in favor of!” He was with us
another 3 years, till 2 February 1969. Lon Chaney
Jr. was trying to raise funds to star himself in
CURSE OF THE GILA.

Ethan Azeltine (no address given) contributed
what he characterized as “A Fantastically Boring
Fan Letter” but I did not agree. Nor, I think, will
you. Here it is:

After reading FM #36, I have
a feeling some readers are going
to write in about it and perhaps put
a stake in you.

I had never seen THE
ALLIGATOR PEOPLE and I
found the article interesting.
Reading THE MUMMY’S
GHOST filmbook I was pleased to
see that it was not disappointing!

It was an FM filmbook, which
says a lot for it. The only thing I
found missing was a few details
about the making of the picture—
the actors and other small things
(What, are you calling the actors
“small”? One of them may have
been incredibly miunmified but
none of them was incredibly
shrunken!) Nevertheless, it was as
entertaining as if you were seeing
the film. Pix great! I have never
seen many pix from this show and
they were tops.

“To Kill A Mockingbat” was a
type of article I would like to see
more of when the editor appears
on TV or even radio. The majori-
ty of readers never see him or even
hear him and when he prints the
interviews at least the fens can find
out what happened.

HOUSE OF WAX pic was
another phenomenal great which
only FM consistently brings to the
monster fens. In the movie it only
gave a glimpse of Price’s face and

I have been hoping you would find
a picture of it consumed by fire.
I have never seen a bad You Axed
For It and this one was no excep-
tion. This is one of the regular
features I look forward to each
issue; always an interesting, reveal-
ing or horrifying foto. THE LOST
WORLD Missing Link feature
was another scoop that would have
remained lost and the fotos hidden
but for FM.

This was the good part which
unfortunately took up only half
your issue. Now for the features
you might be staked out for: ST.
GEO. & THE 7 CURSES seem-
ed familiar— where have I seen ftiis
before? Likewise RETURN OF
THE FLY. Some of the angrily
written letters to you over trivial
matters lead me to suspect they
will stalk you out this time. The
reason I think these articles were
republished was that probably
while the editor was in Europe
collecting new features, either an
article didn’t arrive in time for
press or because he was away from
Hollywood th^ found they were
short of copy and, having no way
to contact FJA, had to substitute
hastily at the press deadline. This
is one reason I am not inclosing
wolfbane in this letter: I think this
could not be helped and was not
the result of a lazy staff.

To those people who say that
science fiction & horror stories &
movies are trash I would like to
reveal a fact. Last year when I was
in 9th grade th^ had 2 science fic-
tion & one horror story in our
literature book. Smries written fcy
great writers: Bradbury, Clarke &
Poe. This year we have a horror
story by Voq, “The Cask of Amon-
tillado”, and 2 s.f. stories written
again by the greats, Bradbury &
Clarke. If these stories are put in
school literature books they can’t
be trash, can they? Every time I
hear someone make an ignorant
statement like “science fiction is
trash” (while probably watching
“P^ton Place” on TV) my blood
boils to Fahrenheit 451 and I am
strongly tempted to go to one of
the Weapon Shops of Isher. I
would like to utihze one of Waldo’s
mechanisms for obvious purposes.

129

I would like to state 2 things
against reader Haise’s views. So
what if words like “dialogue” are
shortened to “dialog” and
“though” to “tho”? Big Federal
case. My other bone is when he
said MW would drag FM down
to ruin— I think he is sadly mis-
taken. However, I do not think he
is one of those smart alecks that
editors are plagued with; I believe
he is a sincere & serious horror
fan. (So do we.)

ETHAN AZELTINE

Causticritic Doug Haise took a
Haise-ing from Steve Meserve of
Asheville, NC:

ANTI-FOG, ANTI-SMOG,
ANTI-HAISE

Doug Haise nearly made me
burst right out of my crypt! That
letter of his was undoubt^ly the
most assinine & downright
ridiculous correspondence ever
printed in either MW or FM. He
has no idea what he is asking, or
rather ordering you to do when he
says to do away with still shots of
the old masters.

Give up the well-known fotos of
Chaney, Lugosi & the others and
you won’t lose half of your
readers; you will lose all but the
scattered few like Doug Haise. It’s
not worth it for anyone concern-
ed. You lose your business and we
lose the best “filmagazine” to ever
hit the “noosestands” of this coun-
try. As for scrapping MW— don’t!
We wanted FM 12 times a year so
you gave us MW which is nothing
but FM with a different name and
slightly changed format.

I just can’t believe that any true
filmonsteis fan could or would tire
of seeing the classic portraits
printed in your 2 magazines. I, for
one, have a framed portrait of Bela
Lugosi, cut from the pages of FM,
sitting on my desk. I see it every
day— the first thing every morning
and almost the last at night; yet I
never tire of it. I have seen Lugosi’s
DRACULA upwards of 15 times
and I think I could see it 115 more
times before I would even begin
to tire of it. The day you quit
publishing pictures of l^gosi in
your mags is the day I stop buy-

ing them. (Then that day will
never come.)

Mr. Haise is a disgrace to
monster fandom when he says he
would rathCT “see a still with more
gore than THE FLESH EATERS
fiian a ‘classic’ portrait of Karloff
or Chaney.” This is exactly the
kind of attitude which causes men
like Rep. Dolley to feel that his bill
(explained on p. 48 MW #6) is
necessary. If this bill goes thru, the
monster-hating adults will have the
toehold they need in the law. These
people want to ban all horror
movies, not just gory ones like
BLOOD FEAST OF A THOU-
SAND MANIACS. This could
lead to the ban of the good films
by Christopher Lee & Peter
Cushing as well as the re-releases
of the classics.

Heads up, Doug Haise! You may
not have to obey N. Carolina
legislation but I do. If your kind
won’t cool off in your “bloodlust”
we N. Carolinians will be the first
to miss the new horror movies. Just
remember, some day such a biU
may reach YOU.

STEVE MESERVE
Asheville, NC

Great letters this issue. Here are
2 more:

GOOD MEATY LETTER,
KIND READERS LIKE

Regarding your request in #37
for more information about the late
Frank Reicher, I can add that he
appeared in THE INVISIBLE
RAY (Univ.-36), THE
MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET
(Univ.42), THE STRANGE MR.
GREGORY (Mono.-46). he played
Karl in Uni’s NIGHT KEY with
Karloff (’37); the hospital super-
intendant in Lippert’s 1951
SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE
MEN (perhaps his last role). He
also played Dr. Rinehart in First
National’s 1934 RETURN OF
THE TERROR and the auctioneer
in SECRET OF THE CHATEAU
(Univ.-34). His role in NIGHT
MONSTER was Dr. Timmons.
Altho he appeared in THE
SECRET LIFE OF WALTER
MITTY (RKO-47) he was killed
in the beginning of the picture and

shared no scenes with Karloff.

You are correct in your recent
statement that Ernest Thesiger
never retired. He is credited with
several film appearances within a
year of his death.

I wish you would spend more
time on the little known but oft-
seen horror actors like Patrick
Magee, Nigel Green, Leonard
Sachs, Anne Blake, John Stuart,
Marianne Stone, Francis DeWolff,
Barbara Shelley, Philip Leaver,
Kieron Moore, Chas. Lloyd Pack,
Ewen Solon, Michael Ripper,
Geo. Woodbridge, Michael
Gough, Miles Malleson, Victor
Brooks, all currently appearing in
British films. All have made at
least 5 horror films; some like
Ripper & Malleson have made as
many as 10. Other actors with at
least 5 horror films behind them
include Lloyd Corrigan, Herbert
Marshall, Nigel De Brulier, E.E.
Clive, Wm. Schallert, Harry
Lauter, Morris Ankrum (who
holds the record for most monster
films by a non-monster actor at an
incredible 14 pictures), Richard
Carlson, John Agar, Richard Den-
ning, Russ Bender, Robt. Shayne,
Alan Napier, Dick Miller,
Jonathan Haze, Tom Conway,
Thos. B. Henry, John Hoyt &
dozens more. (\^th all the work
you have laid out for us we fear
we shall have to create a separate
magazine called UNFAMOUS
HORROR FILM ACTORS.
Basically, however, we have
nothing against your request for
devoting more attention to some
of the lesser personalities.)

I recently (or resentfully) saw
2000 MANIACS from David F.
Friedman & Herschell Gordor
Lewis (BLOOD FEAST).
Generally horror films don’t
bother me but I began to get sick
during the incredibly sadistic
blood-soaked mess. I^ople should
be warned about films like this,
tho technically it was an improve-
ment over BLOOD FEAST. Botl
taste & plot were non-existent. The
most realistic element of the filrr
is the blood, and at times that is
a little too realistic.

I own a complete set of FM anc
I enjoy the work you are doing

130

altho I feel that the writing should
be raised from the subteen level to
college level. (An old argument
and a dream that will never be
realized until there are as many
college level readers as there are
grade school. %u’re 18, and
remember our recent reader
who asked, “Don’t you t hink 16
is a ridiculous age to be in-
terested in monsters?” Our
answer was “no.” But while
many young men & women up-
ward of 16 continue to go to
monster, horror & sci-fi movies,
unfortunately the majority of
the older ones do not continue to
support ANY monster
magazine, regardless of higher
literary level.) I am a college stu-
dent with a drama major and it
seems likely that I shall become
an actor. If I become a success in
the field I will return to my love
of fantasy films and devote my at-
tention to improving the status of
the ’‘monster picture.” (We are ge-
nuinely glad to hear that and
wish you every success.)

DAN ERWINE
£1 Cajon, Calif.

BAD ACK-TOR

In regard to the editor’s com-
ments on my letter in MONSTER
WORLD § 1 , by making a
mockery of my obvious error of
the word “juvenile” he has proven
himself immature. If I were to pick
an error out in one of the publica-
tions (and there are, on the
average, 3 per issue) and proceed-
ed to “pla^-it-up” as was done with
mine, it would, I am sure, insult
FJA’s intelligence. Is it impossible
to criticize him without him blow-
ing up. . .even when it is construc-
tive? When I refer to the
magazines as being juvenile I am
speaking of the contents of the ar-
ticles (i.e., puns). I have all the
respect in the world for Mr. War-
ren. He is one of the finest men
I have ever met. It is impossible
for Mr. Ackerman to have respect
for all his readers, I know I
wouldn’t, when you realize that
most of them are immature
12-year-olds— judging from some
of die letters not very intelligent at

that. There must be articles like
“The Munsters,” SHE-
CREATURE, etc. to appeal to
such an audience. No complaint.
It is hard enough to make a living
nowadays. You must admit, at least
Mr. Warren does, that there has
been a noticeable fall in the
magazine’s quality, at least in a
literary sense.

I certainly don’t respect the

WANTED:
MORE
READERS
LIKE . . .

MARK TROY

Ackermonster as I used to. More
respect for his readers is definite-
ly in order.

STEVE B. KAPLAN
Freehold, N.J.

• After reading this letter I
nominate myself as a Guest
Villain in a segment of BAT-
MAN: I’ll play Ratman! I’m
glad, Steve, you like Jim
Warren— I think next to his

Mother, Dad & Best Girlfriend,
I like him better than anybody
else — but what I never seem to
be able to put across to you &
any number of readers like you
is that the PUBLISHER dictates
the policy of the magazine and
I, as editor, only follow orders.
Mr. Warren wants a funny pnn-
ny juvenile pair of lilmonster
magazines because his ex-
perience has convinced him that
that is what the migority of his
readers want to buy. I, personal-
ly, would infinitely prefer to
write on a high literary ievel for
readers with college degrees but
SPACEMEN magazine was our
experiment in an imagi-movie
publication of higher quality and
it was a miserabie financial flop.
On the other hand, when,
tongue in cheek and seeking to
entertain a segment of the
movie-going population from
children who can barely read to
young men who are about to
pass out of the monster phase
and into other interests;— when
I write the next issue of FM,
which will be #40, and im-
mediately thereafter edit issue
#10 of MW, that will make FIF-
TY fihnonster magazines that I
will have produced in the past
8 years and Mr. Warren scarcely
needs emphasize that this is a
publishing success unapproach-
ed by a million miles by anyone
else in the world.

Speaking of miles reminds me
of the 8700 1 drove several years
ago, voluntarily over a period of
5 weeks, to meet as many
readers as possibie. And I
wonder how many people have
heard me say since, when ask-
ed what “the tittle monsters”
were like: “Bright-eyed, bushy-
tailed, all busy drawing up a
storm, making models, even
their own motion pictures;
decorating dens; editing
amateur magazines; compiling
lists. More imaginative, more in-
telligent, I’m convinced, than
the non-monster fans of
America.” What more respect
can you expect a 49-year-old
man to pay his teen & subteen
readers? — Forry.

131

The first application of
makeup, the latex
headpiece, was started at
10:30 AM.

Photos by R. Michelucci

The Creation of Frankenforry and our cover.

We thought that you would like to see just how FJA was transformed into Frank, so for those of
you who just may have AXED FOR IT. . .

132

133

Just about three hours later, the monster
was alive.

Meanwhile, actress Bobbie Bresee was
readying herseif with makeup and
wardrobe.

Under the direction of Bob Micheiucci,
photographer Bill Appleton checked the
lighting and steadied the camera.

134

Oops! Let’s check that makeup.

And fix that hair too!

And the result— our cover photograph.

135

“TYRANNO POWER
SURE KNOWS HOW TO
MAKE A BRONTO
SORE!”

Eek! Did I write that? Yes, as a headline for a
2-page spread on the then-new film, DINO-
SAURUS. And I hope it didn’t make Tyrone Power
sore at us — or was this movie star dead by then?
In Headlines from Horrorsville my campaign to
establish Fritz Leiber as a new star sinister was hav-
ing its effect: Geoige Pal said, “I’d like to promote
that man!’— and had Pal fulfilled his dream to
remake METROPOLIS, Leiber might have played
either John Masterman or Rotwang. DEAD MEN
IN SPACE was announced as a possibility for
Florence Marly’s next screen appearance but the
picture was never made. Nor, as far as I know, was
THE LIBRARY OF DR.. MALDONADO, in
which Brother Theodore was to have a part, due
to the pressure of FM readers. Lillian Lugosi,
mother of Bela’s only son, became the Bride of
Quatermass when she married Brian Donlevy.

THE SHE-CREATURE made her first ap-
pearance in this issue. 'Year’s later one of the ques-
tions I was most frequently asked was, “How did
the She-Creature die?” ^^fell, I’m looking at the con-
clusion of the story in issue #40, Aug, ’66, and it
says: “As the stupified police look on, an almost-
invisible form walks slowly thru the flames and into
the sea as a multitude of bullets ate fired at it. It
fades away, the mysterious tracks disappearing with
it.” So don’t call me, m call you.

In Monster Mail Call frequent writer Ethan
Azeltine said, “I don’t know how you collected so
many great articles for one issue but you somehow
did. I bet you 1000 tana leaves you don’t get one,
not one letter of complaint about issue 39.” I
responded, “Paging Im-ho-tep & Kharis: we have
1000 tana leaves for sale— cheap. After all, they
didn’t cost us ai^^thing . . .optimistic Ethan lost them
on a bet. Tho technically he might be right: we
didn’t get one complaining letter, right off we got
2. Following is one.” Jeff McCarter: “FM #39 was
terrible. More than anything I’d like to say it was
good but I can’t. It just stinks! It is by far the worst

piece of material you have put out yet! If you can’t
put out better material than this don’t strain yourself
to do so— don’t put out anything.” To which I
responded: “Why editors get gray. 'What delighted
reader #1, blighted reader #2. If we’d taken Jeffs
advice we’d never have bothered to put together the
current issue.”

Backtracking a moment to issue #32 in March
’65, 1 see I overlooked a name I am now astonish-
ed to find in FM 21 years ago: Joanna Russ! Now
an important author in the science fiction field.

KARLOFF. . .CHANEY JR.
...LUGOSI

Nov. ’66, #41, found Boris Karloff hoping “to
keep on working to the very end. I intend to die
with makeup on, in front of the cameras, working
at my trade as an actor.” He almost made it but con-
tracted pneumonia after making his final 4 films
and died in a hospital in his native land, England.
Lon Chaney Jr. did a foreword, “Confessions of
a Make-Believe Werewolf,” for James Reynolds’
book “Gallery of Ghosts” (hard-cover and selling
for $3.95!— how’s that for fantastic?) Columnist Bill
Obbagy stated, “It’s something that ought to be read
by every serious Chaney historian.” Bill also re-
minded us that Aug. 16 marked the 10th anniver-
sary of Lugosi’s passing to Prince Sirki’s domain.

I did a major Filmbook on WereWolf of Lon-

ON THE SET of Karloff's final film, THE
INCREDIBLE INVASION.

136

don (that’s the way it appeared on the screen, with
a second capital “W” in the middle of the word)
and in tidbits of information afterwards revealed:
Henry Hull was bom 3 Oct. 1890, Warner Oland
(the other lycanthrope in the film) 3 Oct. 1880.
Character actress Spring Byington, who had a com-
edic part in the picture, became a friend of mine
in the mid-60s, and I learned she was an ardent
reader of science fiction. “My s.f. diet keeps my
imagination corpuscles healthy and active,” she told
me and I reported.

FRANKENSTEIN WOLFS
THE MEAT MAN

If you groaned at that pun, the onus is upon the
83-year-young originator of it himself, Curt Siod-
mak* who now goes “Beyond Donovan’s Brain”
with a sequel to his thrice-filmed classic. The issue
was #42, Jan. ’67, and inside we learned that:

•Lon Chan^ Jr. had become a grandfather. . . for
the 10th time!

•Vincent Price, who had “quit horror films,” was
now returning to monsterdom.

•And, budgeted at $1 million (Big Bucks in those
days) was GRjWESIDE STORY, which was to have
costarred Price & Karloff, with Bette Davis being
sought for a top role in the picture. Based on
Richard Matheson’s tale “Being,” this could have
been a winner— but, alas, it remained in the Realm
of Unwrought Things.

LONG CHANEY
EVENING

Feature of the 43rd issue, Mar. ’67, was a glow-
ing account of the night Count Alucard (Lon
Chaney Jr.) was honored by the Count Dracula
Society. First Robert Bloch received an Ann
Radcliffe Award for his Hitchcock television hour
THE SIGN OF SATAN, adapted from his weird
tale “Return to the Sabbath” and starring
Christopher Lee. In presenting the award I kidded
Bloch by saying:

“Who can ever forget the master-
pieces he has given us such as:

“UNCLE TOM’S CABINET
OF DR. CALIGARI. . .

“BATMAN & ROBIN-
HOOD...

“And DR. GHOULFINGER.

“Yes,” continued your editor,

“that’s Robert Bloch for you. He
has the unique honor of being the
only man here this evening who
knew Ann Radcliffe personally.”

(In case you aren’t aware, Mrs.
Radcliffe was bom 200 years ago.)

In making his acceptance
speech, Mr. Bloch made such
observations as:

“Wasn’t it horrible in the papers
recently about that insane
murderer who killed people so that
he could cut out their insides and
restring his tennis racquets? I say
that took a lot of guts.”

“When I wrote ‘Psycho’ I never
dreamed people would go crazy
over it.”

And:

“I believe there’ll always be a
Dracula Society because it’s the
one club that has a stake in the
future.”

Don R)st, Carroll “Luna” Borland, \feme (makeup
artist) Langdon and others were present that
memorable evening, and Chaney received a stand-
ing ovation when he arrived. My introduction of
him follows:

137

“35 years ago,” I began my
intro, “we lost the Phantom
of the Opera, the Hunchback of
Notre Dame, the ghoulish figure
of LONDON AFTER MID-
NIGHT, THE MIRACLE
MAN — tihe ‘Man of A Thousand
Faces.’ It was Face #1001 for Lon
Chaney Sr. — his death mask.

“But shortly thereato' we began
to see another face that strongly
resembled his— his son’s. Lon was
first known as Creighton Tull
Chaney, then Lon Chan^ Jr. ; now
for many years, he tells me, with
a large family of children &
grandchildren of his own, he is
simply Lon Chaney.

“Of course his claim to fame
does not depend exclusively on his
appearance in monster films. He
has had some distinguished roles
in regular pictures— particularly
the unforgettable Lenny, a tower-
ing achievement in OF MICE &
MEN.

“The firstime he appeared in a
fantastic role you couldn’t exactly
call it Gothic because it was in
ONE MILLION B.C. and that was
a little bit before the Gothic era
was invented. Lon did a remark-
able thing for that movie but un-
fortunately it didn’t reach the
screen: he created a great caveman
make-up of his own. But because
of Guild regulations it couldn’t be
used. Fortunately 2 fotos of this

make-up were preserved and have
been published so that we were
able to see how good he was at it.

“In 1941, via an overdose of
electricity, he became the MAN
MADE MONSTER. And that
same year he first appeared in his
greatest monster role: THE WOLF
MAN. I had occasion to find out
just how well known & popular
that portrayal was when I went out
on the road for awhile with the
people from the Don Post Studios
when they created a 3-times-a-day
live show for monster fans: I found
out how even the smallest children
knew the Wolfman and that his
name in human form was Larry
Talbot, and how he got killed, and
so on.

“In 1942, Lon stepped into
some very large boots indeed:
those of Boris Karloff, which he
had finally vacated after playing
his immortal Frankenstein 3 times.

“Then Lon was really on his
way with FRANKENSTEIN
MEETS THE WOLFMAN,
THE SON OF DRACULA and
THE MUMMY’S GHOST.

“In 1944 he made a film
adapted from a great modern
Go^c novel, ‘Conjure Wife,’ and
the movie was called WEIRD
WOMAN.

“1945 was a hard year for Lon
to stay alive as he:

“Played THE FROZEN

GHOST...

“Suffered THE MUMMY’S
CURSE...

“And turned into the Wolfman
in both THE HOUSE OF
DRACULA & THE HOUSE OF
FRANKENSTEIN.

“Lon has contributed to the
Gothic-type film in pictures rang-
ing all the way from THE
BLACK CASTLE to THE
BLACK SLEEP. In the latter he
appeared with Bela Lugosi; it was
Lugosi’s last film.

“Recently, after putting on film
practically everything Edgar Allan
Poe ever wrote, American Inter-
national Studios looked about for
similar works and discovered
HPLovecraft. When th^ filmed
his HAUNTED PALACE they in-
sured its success by including Lon
Chaney in the cast.

“They called his father The
Man of A Thousand Faces. Lon
might be called The Man of a
Thousand Deaths — in fact he even
played in a picture called I DIED
A THOUSAND DEATHS. But,
taking a cue from the title of
another of his films, I prefer to call
him, ladies & gentlemen: THE
INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN!”

And to a thunderous applause,
Lon Chaney left his table and
made his way up onto the stage and
into the mouth of the great red
devil from which all acceptance

138

speeches were delivered.

TREAT OF
TREATS

What followed was totally
unexpected.

And never to be forgotten.

Following the pattern set by
those before him, Lon first made
some humorous remarks.

“In movies, I have been paid for
4 things,” he said.

“For being ugly. That I can’t
help.

“For scaring people.” At that he
threw up his hands, made a horri-
ble face and growled.

“For acting dumb. And if I go
on talking much longer, I’ll just
prove it.”

The 4th thing, I regret to say,
I cannot for the life of me
remember at the moment. Un-
doubtedly some reader present wiU
remember it and write in to Fang
Mail so it can be included in a
future issue.

But Lon proved he was no dum-
my by pointing out something

which everyone else had over-
looked: when the original in-
troductions of all the special guests
had been made, it had been re-
quested that the applause not be
given individually but saved till
last.

Then the applause had been
completely overlooked!

But Lon reminded everyone of
it then & there and a long over-
due round of clapping was given
the other celebrities.

Then— the unexpected.

“You people have fed me and
given me a good time,” Lon said.
“I feel I should do something for
you in return.”

Pause.

We scarcely could see how he
could turn into the Wolfman in
front of our eyes. But he did some-
thing equally dramatic, if not more
so: without benefit of any special
preparation, he turned himself into
the well-meaning but bumbling,
dim-witted Lenny of MICE &
MEN fame!

He came alive as a great actor
before our very eyes!

“George—’ he began, and in an

amazing sustained monolog of in-
creasing intensity & power he
spellbound the audience with an
on-the-spot Academy perfor-
mance. When he reached the
climax of the scene and bowed his
head in his arms, his shoulders
wracked with sobs, the audience
rose to its feet as a man to give him
a standing ovation for the second
time in one evening.

It was a classic moment, we
were proud & thrilled to be there,
and are happy to share the thrill
with you who could not physical-
ly be present.

Afterwards Lon graciously gave
all the autographs everyone
wanted, answered questions and
signed fotos by the score. He
expressed astonishment at one
showing him as a boy of about 14
with his dad.

One bright young fan stepped up
to FM’s editor and said, “Ibu said
ONE MILLION B.C. was Lon’s
first fantastic role, in 1939. How
about the Atlantis serial THE
UNDERSEA KINGDOM in
1936?” You are all invited to this
boy’s funeral.

One of the happiest days of my life was
when Forrest J Ackerman discovered me and
started my career in horror. Without his
launch. I’d still be working at the Playboy
Club as a “dumb bunny!”

That’s when I discovered "’Famous Monsters'".
Forry’s influence in the world of science fic-
tion has been a beacon for all to follow. He
keeps the legends of Dracula, Frankenstein,
The Phantom, The Werewolf and The Mum-
my alive for all of us to cherish.

Bobbie Bresee

BOBBIE BRESEE is the rapidly rising creepix
cult queen seen in MAUSOLEUM,
GHOUUES, PRISON SHIP, BEAi
BLOOD BATH (with FJA) and Guest of
Honor of the 1985 Imagfic Fantasy Film
lestival in Madrid, Spain.

139

Now (1986) let me bring back into print a forgot-
ten fact, something erased from my memory till
I re-read it in the course of re-living the evening:
Lon revealed he had once worked as a stunt man
under the name of. . .Colvin\

In “Headlines from Horrorsville” Stanley
Kubrick was quoted as saying “I’m sure there’s in-
telligent life on other planets. To prove they’re in-
telligent, they haven’t visited Earth!”

HOUSE OF DRACULA was the 18-page
featured Filmbook.

Publisher’s statement re total paid circulation (in-
cluding 3000 subscriptions) for the preceding 12
months: 132,180.

OF DEATH & DALEKS

In #44, May ’67, we regretfully had to announce
the demise of Delos W. Lovelace, author of the
novelization of “King Kong.” Prince Sirki took him
at 70 to Death’s Domain.

Peter Cushing as Dr. Who was spotlighted in a
feature about the Daleks.

After an absence of 2 issues, the readers’ dept,
was back. I was never in favor of it being omitted.
A poignant letter from Itter Warren:

“PLEASE WRITE’!-PETE
I am asking you if you could
find me a pen friend of the age of
11 years. I have been a fan of EM
for a long time. My name is Peter
Warren. But if you find me a pen-
pal, tell him I’m blind in one eye
and my mother is German. Then
I hope he will still want me as a
penpal.

Address
22 Albion Way
Lewisham SE 13
London, England

• What’s wrong with having a
German mother? Marlene
Dietrich is one of the most
famous hest-liked German

mothers (in fact grandmothers!)
in the world. Thea von Harbou,
who wrote THE WOMAN IN
THE MOON, was German, and
Brigitte Helm, who starred in
ALRAUNE, was German. Why,
even my German teacher was
German! As for only having
sight in one eye, consider that
Sammy Davis Jr. is in the same
hoat as you, and he’s built his
boat into a veritable Queen
Mary. So you keep your eye on
a hi^, high star, young Peter,
and with the guidance of your
mother row your boat to victory.
We know you’ll receive mai^ let-
ters from monster fans who’d
like to have a penpal like you. In
fact, if we only had time, we’d
be glad to correspond with you
ourself. Honest. Nextime the
Editor is in London he’ll give you
a phone call. That’s a promise.

WAXING ENTHUSIASTIC

#45, July ’67, featured a 12-page Fearbook on
HOUSE OF WAX (3D). In Monster Mail Call we
featured a foto of Christopher Lee Cobun (Dracula
Jr.) and Walter Ernsting, cocreator of the world’s
longest-running space opera, the weekly ftrry
Rhodan series of which Wendayne the Ackerwoman
was series editor and chief translator in America,
(Ernsting also received one of the science fiction
field’s most rewarding honors, a Big Heart Award.)

A lot of funny little mini-missives in Monster
Mail Call this time:

“Cover of KONG & the pteranodons” (#44) was
sharp as a pterodactyl’s tooth.’— Morton Weiss,
NYC.

“I thought that elephants were supposed to be
strong & brave,” complained Mark (Ddell of Los
Altos, CA, faulting Ray Harryhausen for letting the
Ymir best the noble beast in 20 MILLION MILES

140

TO EARTH. I replied: “Elephants of the world,
arise! Pack your trunks with elephant guns, you
mighty pachyderms, and make that rotten Har-
ryhausen animate you stronger & braver the nex-
time he pits you against a Venusian lizard or any
other kind of creature. Remember, Ray, an elephant
never forgets, so for your own protection tie a
jumbo-size bag of peanuts with you the nextime you
got to a circus or a zoo. (PS: We were only kid-
ding about you being rotten, Ray; we think you’re
GREAT. It’s the SCRIPTWRITER who was rot-
ten, to make the elephant seem weak & cowardly,
and lose.) By the way, reader today, do you know
what you get when you cross an elephant with a
fly? A zipper that never forgets! (Hope you can.)

“Wm. Castle is NOT a terror! I met this great
producer of shockers in Hollywood and he
autographed my copy of FM. He is a very jolly
fellow.’— Henry J. Sorenson, Minneapolis.

“Is Marcel Delgado still alive?’— Mike Stamm,
HolUdaysburg, PA. We just phoned him (I replied)
and he said yes. (Delgado was the man who built
King Kong and the 49 dinosaurs in THE LOST
WORLD.

“ ‘Mixed Monsters’ is always a lesson itself. It just
shows you that everyone makes misteaks. As I
always say sometimes, ‘After all none of us are
human.’ ’—Wayne Heson, Carbon HUl, AL.

“I am thoroughly disgusted with your in-
telligence.’— Tom Tradup, Syracuse, NY. To which
I replied: So am 1. I should have more common-
sense than to keep running letters that run me down
for something I’m not responsible for.

“First of all, I don’t care whether or not you print
this letter, I just hope you read it.’— Dave Ludwig,
Villa Park, IL. Alright, I read it.

“I think you should get a raise. You’re the best
Editor a monster magazine ever had.’— Laney Loftin
(no address). Response from publisher: At your
recommendation we have given our editor a raise.
His office is no longer located in the basement with
the mushrooms, we have moved him to the ground
floor. The floor was personally ground ty Godzilla.

“Whether you realize it or not, FAMOUS
MONSTERS is the founder of a new science —
Monsterology!’— Susan Dick, Minden, WV.

“Don’t you think it’s time BORIS KARLOFF was
awarded a special Academy Award honoring his
many years of thoroughly professional service?’— Jay
P. Sheridan, Bogota, NI. Response: No— we think
it’s OVERTIME!

LAUGH, CLONE, LAUGH. Ilbung Paul
Clemens, later to star In THE BEAST
WITHIN, makes up Forry as Vincent Price
character Dr. Phibes.

141

DR.

ACKULA’S

LUMINOUS

ALUMNI

Master Makeup Magician Rick Baker with Lon, DON AFTER MiDNIGHT

142

Forceful FM reader George Lucas

143

Steven (ET) Spielberg

John Landis

Special Makeup Effects Wiz Tom Savini

Jim Danforth

144

glewood, CA.

“I love your mag, only my father gets mad
because I spin webs all around the room.’— Jerry
Michaud, Alameda, CA. I recommended: Out of
sight, out of mind. Try spinning your webs on the
ceiling, then they will be out of si^t and your father
will be out of his mind.

“When was Frankenstein released?’— James
Brewer, Findlay, OH. “As far as we know he was
forbidden to Mary and put in a Prison Shelley for
generation after generation until such a time as he
would stop scaring people.” Or Dec. 1931, which-
ever answer you prefer.

“I noticed the Ackermonster mentioned on the
cover of an issue of Cavalier but I’m not yet of age

KARLOFFORNIA’S

MAGICASTLE

#46, Sq)t. ’67, featured a Paul Linden coverage
of Boris the Benign in Hollyweird’s Magic Castle.

In Monster Mail Call, a foto of young Beverly
Anne Truex, who a short time later became the
Bride of the Monster-Lover Bill “Keep Watching
the Skies!” Warren. Foto of ftiture sp^ artist Jon
Berg. Letter from sf author Steve Utley.

WHEN CLAUDE
REIGNED

#47, Nov. ’67, great cover by Basil Gogos of
Claude Rains as the Phantom of the Opera. I had
sadly to report he died on May 30 in his 77th year.
And “Eight for Eternity” was even darker news,
revealing we had lost Basil Rathbone, Charles Beau-
mont, Tom Conway, Nelson Eddy, Mischa Auer,
Barbara Payton, Spencer Tracy and Walt Disney.

“Vampires are a kind of being.

Who suck the blood of persons sleeping.”

—Short poem by Michelle Keenan, who was
warned: Beware the Ire of a Vamp!

Photo of Yugoslavian actress Svetlana
Makarovich. If anyone knows her whereabouts to-
day, please contact FJA.

“I would like to know where Bela Lugosi is buried
and how old he was when he died.’Wames Doguar-
di, New Brighton, PA. Lugosi died 2 months before
his 74th birthday and is buried in Holy Cross, In-

145

to thumb thru this type of magazine so I thought
I’d call it to the attention of older fans interested
in reading about FAfs editor.’— Tom Prehoda (no
address given). “Thanx, Tom. The article appeared
in the June ’67 issue. The magazine is meant for
grownups but there’s nothing in the interview itself
that is unfit for anyone of any age.”

GHOST WRITER

THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN was the
biggie in the 48th issue, Feb. ’68, a major Filmbook
by the brothers Brunas, John & Michael, 26 thrill-
ing stillustrated pages.

In Fang Marl appeared a photo of Norbert F.
Novotny of Brazil. Eventually he would move to
Hollywood and into my home and heart— until he
broke it. Why such a trail of betrayals in my life?
He disappointed my wife as well.

Bill Bond was a pseudonym for Bill Warren (I
think Bond is his middle name) who said: “Your
Obituary for Spencer Tracy was very good but
didn’t go back far enough. Before his movie roles,
in New York in 1922 he appeared as a robot wear-
ing a mask in a nonspeaking part in RUR
(ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS).’’ Inciden-
tal intelligence, 1986: Somewhere along the line I
learned that “rossum” (correctly spelled “roszum,”
I believe) is Czech for “brain.” So the title is kind
of a double entendre for “Brain’s Universal
Workers.”

“What did the first issue of FM look like?” ask-
ed Mike Alexander of Zebulon, GA. “The first issue
of FM looked like a winner— as time proved it to
be. Against a blood-red background appeared a
young lady escorted by the publisher in a tuxedo—
and Frankenstein mask.” The same cover you see
on this book, recreated by Bobbie Bresee & me and
makeup artists Howard Berger & Tom Savin! ,
photography by Bill Appleton,

IF I WERE WOLF

One of rny favorite covers, Ron Cobb’s portrait of
Henry Hirll as the Werwolf that’s the way it
appeared on the screen, rather than the usual
Werewolf) of London. May ’68, #49. Fifteen page

feature on Lugosi’s Dracula^ including a 2-page
short story version of the vampire classic, “The
Undead.” “Curiosity Killed the Bat” episode in
These Were Their Lives series, by Ronald Budovec
in collaboration with me writing as Weaver Wright.

No Fang Mail this time, dammit!

50th ANNIVERSARY
ISSUE

Now clearly the July 1968 number was not the
50th Anniversary issue— that could only have hap-
pened in 2008— but go argue with a publisher whose
standard reply was, “You may be right but I’m
boss.” It was the 10th Anniversary (more or less;
the first issue went on sale in Feb. ’58) and a
celebration of the 50th issue. Very disappointing for
a special number, actually. Nothing special about
it. Striking cover of Goigo by Gogos— he was always
great— but I would have featured Karloff, Kong,
Lugosi or Chaney, or possibly all of them. No
editorial to summarize the successes of the first
decade and predict the things to come. The con-
tents were: “Harpy Days are Here Again!” (News
of Future Fright & Fantasy Flicks). . .Tarantula,
6-page minibook about not really one of the all-
time greats. . .4 pages on a Bela B-pic, THE
DEVIL BAT. . . a Mystery Photo of a Frankenstein
figure. . .a Verne Langdon feature about Ben (THE
FLY) Nye, makeup man . . .7-page Filmbook on
GORGO. . .“Dens of Demons” (omitted from the
Table of Contents) . . . HORROR OF DRACULA in
comicstrip format . . .4 pages of You Axed For It.
Not a really distinguished issue, nothing to com-
memorate survival for 2 lustrums.

146

OUR 50th ISSUE is gratefully dedicated to
those shadows of the past whose careers have
meant so much to the world of imagi-movies:
Lionel Atwill, Lionel Barrymore, Charles Beau-
mont, Tod Browning, LON CHANEY SR., Col-
in Qive, WALT DISNEY, Dwight Frye, Rondo
Hatton, Rudolf Klein-R(^e, Charles Laughton,
VAL LEWTON, PETER LORRE, HP
Lovecraft, BELA IXJGOSI, Ned Mann, \Mlliam
Cameron Menzies, WILLIS O’BRIEN, Warner
Oland, EDGAR ALLAN POE, CLAUDE
RAINS, Basil Rathbone, George Reeves, Max
Schreck, MARY SHELLEY, BRAM STOKER,
Ernest Thesiger, Edward Van Sloan, CONRAD
VEIDT, JULES VERNE, Paul ^^fegener, H.G.
WELLS, James Whale and Geoige Zucca AND
APPRECIATIVELY DEDICATED to those still
living who have contributed so much to the lure
& lore of fantastic fllms & television: William
Alland, Irwin Allen, Mario Bava, ROBERT
BLOCH, Carroll Borland, RAY BRADBURY,
John Carradine, LON CHANEY JR., Carlos
Clarens, Herman Cohen, Chris Collier,
MERIAN C. COOPER, ROGER CORMAN,
BUSTER CRABBE, PETER CUSHING, Jim
Danforth, Gray Daniels, MARCEL DELGADO,
Anton Diffring, KARL FREUND, Alex Gordon,
Bert Gordon, ^chard Gordon, Michael Gough,
HAMMER FILMS, Curtis Harrington, RAY
HARRYHAUSEN, Brigitte Helm, Henry Hull,
Noble Johnson, Tor Johnson, BORIS
KARLOFF, Elsa Lanchester, CHRISTOPHER
LEE, Walter W. Lee Jr., Herbert Lorn, Fredric
March, Florence Marly, Ib J. Melchior, James
H. Nicholson, our Overseas Correspondents,
GEORGE PAL, JACK PIERCE, Don Post
Studios, VINCENT PRICE, Michael Rennie,
GENE RODDENBERRY, Jimmy Sangster, ROD
SERLING, CURT SIODMAK, Glenn Strange,
Kenneth Strickfaden, Vampira, JOHNNY
WEISSMULLER, Adam West, WESTMORE
BROS., Fay Wray and Zacherley. And YOU the
READER and those several personalities in the
field of fanta-Blms which I am certain to have
overlooked because the Editor is, after all, On-
ly Inhuman.

Since appearing as the world’s first filmonster
magazine in Feb. 1958, we have produced 50
issues of FM, half a dozen Yearbooks, 3 pocket-
books, 10 issues of MONSTER WORLD, 9 of
SPACEMEN, 3 of FAMOUS FILMS, 10 of
SCREEN THRILLS and one of SUPER
HEROES. . .and survived to record the failure
of other editors & publishers whose principal
ambition was to put us out of business. Are you
old enough to remember Fantastic Monsters,
Monster Mania, World Famous Creatures,
Monster Parade, Mad Monsters, Horror
Monsters, Shriek, Monsters Unlimited, Modern
Monsters, etc.? Monsterism is not exactly at the
peak of its popularity at the presentime, and it

refllects in the publishing field, but we plan to
“Carry on,” like all good monsters, and aim at
that lOOth issue. Dedicated fans saved STAR
TREK by writing ONE MILLION letters; if
EACH & EVERY ONE OF YOU would buy at
least TWO of this issue Qay one away as a finan-
cial investment for a rainy day) it would make
a world of difference in the future of FM. Do
YOU care as much about FAMOUS
MONSTERS as STAR TREK? Then buy that
second copy NOW and give us an early Hallo-
ween present. Trek or treat! — FJA

So that covers the first 50 issues of the one-shot
known as “Forry’s Folly,” the shot heard ’round
the world that echoes everywhere to this day.

What lies ahead in volume 2?

The single saddest loss of the 60s, the death of
gravest import: Black Sunday 2 lebruary 1969 when
Prince Sirki ushered royalty into the arcadia of
afterlife: the day Lugosi, Chaney, Browning, Whale,
Lorre, Rains, Rathbone, et al welcomed the King:
the day Mary Shelley, who had waited more than
a century to meet him, curtsied and placed a kiss
upon the cheek of the man who had so perfectly por-
trayed her Frankenstein monster: Boris Karloff.

From #51 thru #100, more interesting editorials,
great I Dare You letters, the death of Dr. Cyclops,
DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE,
THE (original) THING, MARK OF THE VAM-
PIRE, MAD LOVE, THE OLD DARK HOUSE,
LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, THE (original)
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, THE HOUSE OF
DARK SHADOWS, the Special Lugosi Issue, the
100th Great Issue (really great, this time),
fascinating fanmail and much, much more!

Plan now to acquire aU four fear-filled, fun-fiUed,
info-packed fabulous volumes, revealing with in-
sight and hindsight the autobiographical, an-Ack-
dotal forry-sighted History >Mth Warts of world
famous FAMOUS MONSTERS.

A Wart to the Wise is Sufficient!

A GHOULLERY OF
GOTHIC GREATS

I NOT attempted to gather together all of

the individual movie stars & supporting players who
have esstyed horror roles on the silver (or technicolor)
screen but here is a hvely representation of characters
who have given you the creeps. In selecting fotos of
these fright masters (and two mistresses) I have at-
tempted, where choice permitted, to pick pix that ate
atypical of the actors & actreffies, not the usual run-
of-the-still poses.

YOUNG LON CHANEY JR. when he was
still known as Creighton. Handsome devil,
what? Alas, poor Larry Ihlbot!

BEHIND THE CREPE, Sherlock Holmes
himself— Basil Rathhone!

THE OLE FLYCATCHER, Dwight “Reniield”
Frye. (His mother was a Ftye-catcher, that’s how
she caught his dad.) (Bad!)

148

JACK PIERCE, the pioneer makeup artist,
transforms Boris Karloff.

GIMMICK MAESTRO William Castle
THE MAN Who Made A Monster: Colin Clire. receives awards for weirdness.

A MAN OF PARTS, Bonaparte! Recognize
the Invisible Man? It’s Claude Rains!

ROBUR THE CONQUEROR. Dr. Hiibes.
Master chef. Fkmous art collector. All combined
in one man: Vincent Price.

149

THIS DASHING, devil-may-care heartbreaker of SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST: TOjuld you
believe Peter Cusbiiig? I asked bim if be’d like me to pick this picture of him and he replied, “Sherwood.
Forrest!” (Groan.)

“OHIE”. The great Willis O’Brien, animator
of the 49 dinosaurs in THE LOST WORLD
and the prehistoric monsters of KING
KONG.

FEATURED in over 400 films, he’s only
pl^ed in a couple of horror pix. Sez he!
John Carradine.

150

HOLLYWOOD YUVIP, 1935 and about 25
years later: Carroll Borland.

W\DE A MINUTE! This is the Bride of
Frankenstein? %p, Elsa Lanchester.

“THE LORD HIGH Minister of All That
is Sinister” Has his early appelation. This
picture of Peter Lorre Has given to me hy
the late Celia Lovsky-Lorre, his first wife &
last love.

A BEAMING BELA LUGOSI accepts a
Human Accomplishment Award: “Life Is
What You Make It.”

151

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ornamentally- wrought, beautiful piece of art in itself, this fabulous pendant is equally suitable for man or woman.

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earth from the exact place where Vlad (Dracula) once made macabre history. No mystic powers are claimed for
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FORREST J ACKER-
MAN, FAMOUS MON-
STER OF FILMLAND,
chronicles the first fifty
issues of the world’s most
famous and fabulous
monster filmagazine, col-
lected for three decades.

This hook, designed in
the style of the early FMs
but written on a level for
those of us who were
youngsters in the 50s and
60s (less puns, that is) is
delightfuliy fiiled with in-
formation concernii^ the
nifty fifty issues. Included
are over one hundred and
fifty photos, many having
been squeezed out of those
early issues because there
just wasn’t enough space to
go around. We’ve also in-
cluded a grand-new
GRAVEYARD EXAM-
INER, YOU A XE D FOR
IT, Alumni section of fans
who have turned pro, a
fond look back at
CAPTAIN COMPANY,
cover reproductions, a new
view of the Ackermuseum,
and much, much more.

Beautiful actress Bobbie
Bresee graces the cover
along with FrankenForry
himself in a pose we’re sure
all Famous Monster fans
will recognize from FM’s
legendary first issue.

“THE SMILING MOONBEAM”

Awardee: First Hugo, First Radcliffe, First SF Award (1941, Devention), First Atianta Fantasy Fair
Award; Trixie and Satnrn Awards from Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films; Frank
R. Paul Award, Golden Lion (Burroughs) Award; Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy Hail of Fame
Award; First “Inkpot” Award (1974); Hngos from Germany, Italy and Japan; First Bob Clampett
Hnmanitarian Award.

0-91137-05-X

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